Cisco invites proposals from researchers at universities and nonprofit research organizations interested in conducting research that would help secure the networking and computing technologies used in critical infrastructure sectors.
While some research is applied, some research supported by the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Group (CIAG) addresses underlying enabling technologies that advance the state of the art in specific areas requiring technical maturity before becoming operationally useful. For a research proposal to be supported by CIAG Research, the project must include innovative solutions to critical infrastructure security issues not currently addressed by other solutions. In general, CIAG uses the following criteria to evaluate research proposals:
- Does the proposal use an innovative technical approach to address a critical infrastructure security issue?
- Does the proposal include no significant duplication in the approach or specific objective of other commercial or academic accomplishments?
- Is it technology with a long implementation horizon rather than near-term work?
- Does the proposal include a semester or a year's efforts of two to three graduate students?
CIAG prefers to support projects that aim not only to invent new technologies and techniques but also to innovatively use existing technologies for securing critical infrastructures.
Sponsorship Process
First send CIAG a one- or two-page explanation of the problem(s) that your project aims to solve, its relevance to the critical infrastructure, the deliverables of the project, and a proposed timeline. It is often useful to provide information qualifying your experience in the proposed area of research, as well as a brief outline of previous work in the area conducted by others.
CIAG will evaluate the proposal and, if it decides to further evaluate the proposal, will invite you to submit a complete proposal. The group may also request that you present the proposal to CIAG by conference call. CIAG will make a final decision whether to fund the proposal after fully evaluating the final proposal.
Sponsorship Q&A
Q: Where can I see examples of projects funded in the past by CIAG Research?
A: See a list of research projects sponsored by CIAG Research.
Q: What are the usual deliverables from the sponsored projects?
A: Deliverables generally include hardware, software, tools, techniques, and methodologies. Most of the results are published as papers in various journals and conferences.
Q: What are the characteristics of successful research proposals?
A: The following have been characteristic of successful proposals in the past:
- The proposal addressed an urgent problem in a technology used by multiple critical infrastructure areas.
- The area of impact of the proposal is an area with very little security expertise or research funding.
- The funding that CIAG provides will help foster awareness and further research in the area.
For More Information
To request additional information, please send e-mail to ciag-research@cisco.com.
To submit research projects that are outside the scope of critical infrastructure research, visit the Cisco University Research Program
.
