ESRC Launch ISCF Digital Security by Design Social Sciences Hub+

The Digital Security by Design Challenge (DSbD), supported through the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), aims to overcome existing market failures and radically update the foundation of the insecure digital computing infrastructure that currently underpins the global economy.

The scope of the broader challenge includes implementation, verification and proof of an updated hardware architecture, development of the software and system development tools that will run on it, and demonstration in at least two industry domains.

The Hub+ is expected to develop a multidisciplinary network of academics and stakeholders seeking to understand the behavioural and adoption challenges in digital security, to investigate what it means to be secure and the commercial challenges of moving beyond the current security paradigms. It will have a devolved small project research budget to fund commercially-focused social science research on barriers to adoption.

ESRC is inviting applications from small teams. The team should be able to engage with a range of disciplines including but not limited to the engineering and physical sciences, the breadth of social sciences, security and defence, and communications. The team should also be able to engage with businesses across the commercial sectors covered by the Digital Security by Design challenge.

There is no formal restriction on who may constitute the leadership team, beyond the need for the PI to be an academic at an organisation eligible for funding by ESRC.

Funding available of up to £3 million is available (80% FEC UKRI contribution for the main hub, and 100% FEC for the devolved research budget), to end by March 2024.

Expressions of Interest must be submitted by the deadline of 15 November 2019.

More information about this research funding opportunity and the application process is available on the RESEARCHconnect funding information platform. RESEARCHconnect provides up-to-the minute content, insight and analysis on research funding news and policy. To find out more about how RESEARCHconnect can keep you in the know, and subscription fees, contact us today.