Funder: Commonwealth Cyber Initiative
Due Dates (Anticipated): October 2027 (Proposal submission)
Funding Amounts: Track A: up to $50,000 | Track B: up to $120,000 | One-year projects
Summary: Supports collaborative cybersecurity research that generates initial results and positions researchers for competitive external funding.
Key Information: Proposals must involve at least two public CCI institutions; private institutions may participate but cannot receive funding.
Description
The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Cyber Research Pipeline Program supports cybersecurity research that builds initial results and develops competitive proposals for external funding. It encourages interdisciplinary, multi-university collaboration grounded in strong domain knowledge, with future support sought from government, industry, philanthropy, and other sources. Researchers and institutions that have not previously engaged with CCI or each other are welcome.
Track A, “Cybersecurity in the Age of AI,” supports individual researchers or small teams defending against AI-generated attacks and AI-against-AI. It seeks seminal contributions to AI Defense research, with innovation and workforce development encouraged. Track B supports integrated research by multi-institution teams on any cybersecurity topic. Its main deliverable is a full proposal targeting a major external funding opportunity, supported by a team workshop and CCI red team review.
