Third Call for Proposals now closed. See funded projects here.

C3DTI encourages Research Award recipients to disseminate the results of their research during the award period in publicly accessible repositories, and more generally in the open literature for the public benefit. Such resulting publications should acknowledge the support of C3DTI.

Research Award recipients are asked to provide technical reports during, and at the conclusion of the Research Award period. Due to the rapidly changing cybersecurity environment, Research Award recipients may be requested to provide additional information about their projects during the life of the Research Award.

Review Criteria

Projects will be peer-reviewed on the basis of scientific merit, prior accomplishments of the PI and Co-Investigator(s), the use of AI, machine learning, data analytics, and cloud computing, and the suitability for testing methods at scale. While all proposals are required to show how the C3 AI Suite and Azure will be used in their projects, no prior experience with C3 AI Suite and Azure is required. If proposers do not have prior experience with the C3 AI Suite and Azure, it is strongly encouraged that they consult with the C3DTI development operations staff for details on the functionality of the C3 AI Suite and Azure, and for help addressing the computational challenges of their projects. Projects that leverage other sources of funding are welcome.

Proposal Preparation Instructions

All proposals should be submitted by the lead institution PI online via EasyChair at:

Proposals must be submitted to EasyChair by 11:59 PM PDT February 14, 2022.

Awards will be announced in March with a start date around June 1, 2022.

There will be an opportunity for the award winners to participate in the C3DTI Annual Symposium to be held March 22-24, 2022 in Miami, Florida, and formally receive the award.

Please use the Proposal Submission Template available in EasyChair when preparing your proposal. When finished, save your proposal in PDF format and upload all sections to EasyChair as a single PDF.

Proposals should use 11-point font and have 1” margins. The proposal structure and page limits are as follows, with additional instructions for each section provided below:

Title Page (1 page)

Please include the following items:

  • Full title of your proposed project
  • Principal Investigator full name, title, affiliation, e-mail address, and phone number
  • Co-Investigator full name(s), title(s), affiliation(s), e-mail address(es), and phone number(s)
  • Lead Institution Authorized Organizational Representative full name, title, affiliation, mailing address, e-mail address, and phone number
  • Lead Institution Grant Administrator Contact full name, title, affiliation, mailing address, e-mail address, and phone number
  • Proposal Abstract (maximum 250 words)

Project Description (5 pages)

Please provide details about how your project will address each of the subsections below. Note that figures, tables, equations, etc. count toward the page limit.

  • Project Relevance to AI to Transform Cybersecurity and Secure Critical Infrastructure
  • Project Methodology
  • Expected Research Accomplishments
  • Criteria for Success
  • Approach Novelty and Likelihood of Success
  • Research Team Related Prior Accomplishments
  • Computational Challenges and Resources Needed
  • Suggested Reviewers

C3 AI Suite and Computing Platform Plan (1 page)

Proposals should explain how the C3 AI Suite (powered by Microsoft Azure) will be used to deal with new computational challenges and analyze complex data at scale. To inform your proposal, you may review the provided video recordings that describe computing resources available to C3DTI awardees.

The C3DTI Development Operations staff will be available to answer your questions about computing resources on Tuesdays beginning January 11, 2022 until the proposal submission deadline from 9 am – 10 am PST (11 am – 12 pm CST). Please use this Zoom Meeting link.

No-cost, integrated technical support will be made available to select teams, whereby a C3DTI technical staff member is “embedded” with the Research Award recipient team to support and contribute to project work. Such arrangements should be jointly planned with the C3DTI technical team, which retains discretion and authority over selection of integration projects. These arrangements should be discussed before proposal submission and interested proposers should include details in the optional one-page description described in the Proposal Preparation Instructions section of this document.

Bibliography (3 pages)

Please provide citations to all references in your proposal. There is no set format for citations.

Key Personnel (3 pages)

Please provide a list of Key Personnel and brief (~100 word) biographical sketches for each person. Key Personnel should include the Principal Investigator, Co-Investigators, and other Senior Researchers. Links to full CVs for Key Personnel are allowed.

Budget and Budget Justification (2 pages)

Please provide a budget and a short (one page maximum) budget justification. Research Awards made from this solicitation must be used for direct costs only and no indirect costs or institutional overhead may be charged. The following budget items should be included:

  • Research Personnel
    This should include the cost and amount of time for faculty, students, postdoctoral scholars, and technical staff. Benefit costs are allowable.
  • Administrative Support
    A modest amount of project-related administrative support may be included if it is needed to conduct the proposed work. This should include the cost and time of administrative staff. Benefit costs are allowable.
  • Travel
    This should include travel-related expenses to disseminate the results of the research and collaborate with proposal partners.
  • Materials and Supplies
  • Other and Miscellaneous
    This should include the cost and justification for any special equipment or needs.

C3DTI DevOps Support (optional; 1 page)

This section is optional. If relevant, please provide information on expected requests for assistance from the C3DTI Development Operations (DevOps) staff on the proposed project.

Additional Resources and Contact

C3DTI hosts online information sessions to provide an overview of the call for proposals, along with office hours with technical staff to discuss computing resources available to Research Award recipients. Below are the dates, times, and links for information sessions and office hours. Information sessions and office hours will be conducted via Zoom Meetings.

General Information Sessions (Online)
These online information sessions present an overview of the C3DTI and the third call for proposals and provide an opportunity for proposers to ask questions or get clarification as they prepare proposals.

General Information Session 1 | Session Notes

General Information Session 2 | Session Notes