ISCF Funding for Digital Security by Design Research Projects

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has launched an Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) competition as part of the Digital Security by Design challenge, which focuses on supporting both academic and industry research to enable the creation and potential adoption of a new technology platform with additional hardware protection capabilities.

The competition itself is designed to increase the protection of software in the light of increased cyber-attack against various class of software vulnerabilities. It will achieve this through additional hardware protection capabilities architected around the containment of pointers, and the privilege by which regions of fine grain data can be accessed.

Funding is available to support academic research projects from across the broader research landscape that address specific objectives within the scope of the Digital Security by Design challenge. The aim is to support innovative research projects that will help to move the technology beyond the state of the art, moving Capability Hardware concepts and use forward, without duplicating or conflicting with the existing CHERI research.

Applications are invited that meet one of the following research objectives:

Capability enabled hardware proof and software verification.

Impact on system software and libraries.

Future implications of Capability Hardware.

For information on the eligibility of organisations and individuals to receive EPSRC funding, see the EPSRC Funding Guide.

Any single investigator is only permitted to appear on one application, either as a PI or Co-I. Project partners (industrial partners and/or academic collaborators) are encouraged as part of this call, where this is appropriate for the research being proposed.

Up to £8 million (at 80% full economic cost) is available to fund six to nine projects. Projects can last between three and four years, and must start by 1 June 2020 and finish no later than 31 March 2024.

A workshop (or virtual workshop/webinar) for potential applicants will be held in November 2019 to discuss further details relevant to this Call and to enable the development of interactions and potential collaborations.

Applicants should prepare and submit their proposal using the Research Councils’ Joint electronic Submission (Je-S) System by the 7 January 2020 (16:00) deadline.

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.