National Cybersecurity Consortium – 2024 Call for Proposals
Description:
The National Cybersecurity Consortium (NCC) helps build a future where Canadian organizations are global leaders in cybersecurity, so Canadians benefit from the prosperity, growth and safety that comes from advancing and creating innovative cybersecurity products and services. The NCC is committed to building partnerships between academic, not-for-profit and private sectors to further cybersecurity initiatives across Canada.
Objective of the 2024 Call for Proposals:
With funding from the Government of Canada through the Cyber Security Innovation Network (CSIN) program, the NCC is mobilizing new funds through the 2024 Call for Proposals to support initiatives that:
- Support research and development (R&D) projects with Technology Readiness Levels (TRL)1-9 to design and implement innovative cybersecurity technologies, advance state-of-the-art products and conduct research;
- Support commercialization of new technology with TRL 7-9, products, and services that address cybersecurity challenges in critical infrastructure protection, human-centric cybersecurity, network security, software security and privacy protection; and
- Provide opportunities for training, upskilling and reskilling of students and professionals from various disciplines.
Deadline:
LOI: Deadline February 29, 2024
ORS full application: April 15, 2024
Full (By invitation only): April 26, 2024
Value:
R&D Standard Stream- Maximum request $2 million
- Recommended Matching Contribution of 50% cash from other sources
- Maximum request $500,000
- No matching contribution required
Duration:
Max durations is 4 years
Indirect Cost:
- 15% of NCC Funding ask
- Cannot exceed 55% of NCC funding towards direct labour
How to apply:
Stage 1: Letter of Intent (LOI) - provide an overview of the proposed project, projected project costs, and potential or confirmed sources of matching contributions
Stage 2: Project Proposal - Project Proposals will address project specifics to demonstrate merit, feasibility, leverage of funding, and impact to the Canadian cybersecurity ecosystem. We encourage applicants to use the Evaluation Review Criteria noted below to guide their proposals.
Stage 3: Administrative Details Submission - All Project Leads and Lead Organizations will receive written notice regarding the outcome of their Proposal from the NCC at the conclusion of Stage 2.
For more information:
- Q&A Webinar – February 21, 2024 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Register
- NSS Program Officer: info@ncc-cnc.ca
- Contact your Grants Officer for more information: FBIT, FSSH, FED – Ewa Stewart FEAS – Joanne Hui FHS, FS – Raluca Dubrowski
Eligibility:
Eligible Project Types
The NCC is seeking to fund projects under three major streams:
- Research and Development (R&D)
- Commercialization
- Training
Research and Development Projects:
The NCC will look to provide support to research and development projects (TRL 1-6) that are focused on the design and implementation of innovative cybersecurity technologies, working to advance the state-of-the-art, or looking to conduct studies within the Canadian cybersecurity ecosystem relating to:
- Critical Infrastructure Protection to develop solutions that enable proactive monitoring and real-time detection and mitigation to restore critical infrastructure from damage and interruptions inflicted by cyberattacks.
- Network Security to develop tools, techniques, and procedures to safeguard computer networks and hosts from both internal and external exploits.
- Software Security to develop tools, methods and practices to reveal and cure vulnerabilities before software is released to end-users.
- Human-Centric Cybersecurity to understand how human factors influence and impact security and privacy requirements to develop new humancentric cybersecurity solutions.
- Privacy Protection to develop protective technologies across many different environments that safeguard individuals and data from privacy violations.
Research and Development proposals are not limited to technical or scientific projects but could address non-technical issues of concern to cybersecurity/privacy. These may not sit within a particular TRL but will be considered on their own merit and assessed based on the potential impact of its goals. Research and Development proposals can additionally fall into 6 one of two classes: Spearhead or Standard (for more detail on these classes of projects, see the Terminology List.
Spearhead projects
Spearhead projects are research and development projects that originate from postsecondary educational institutions (PSE) and/or not-for-profit (NFP) organizations but do not have matching contributions identified. Matching contributions recommendations are under the heading ‘Grant Amounts and Matching Contributions’. Spearhead projects should be novel in nature and explore riskier early-stage ideas. However, they are NOT curiosity-driven projects. A spearhead project should have defined goals and milestones but should be sufficiently flexible to adapt as new insights emerge. Thus, the approaches to the goals may change but the goals should not. Changes to goals and milestones will need to be reported in advance of such alternations as specified in the reporting requirements of the Program Guide.
Additional Information:
The NCC will review the LOIs for eligibility, completeness and for opportunities where collaborations among applicants and across projects could occur. One of the primary objectives of the NCC is to encourage collaboration between Canadian post-secondary institutions, the private sector and other partners to accelerate cybersecurity innovation through the development of products, services and training programs; therefore, collaborative projects where multiple stakeholders are involved is an important consideration. Commercialization and spearhead R&D projects may have a narrower scope.
Resources/attachments:
LOI Q & A Session – February 21, 2024 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. – Register
NCC Call for Proposals 2024 – Application Guide
Information Session Slides and Recording
