Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace: Secure, Trustworthy, Assured and Resilient Semiconductors and Systems (SaTC: STARSS)

Cyberspace has transformed the daily lives of people for the better. However, our increasing dependence upon cyberspace has exposed its fragility and vulnerabilities: corporations, agencies, national infrastructure and individuals have been victims of cyber-attacks. In December 2011, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) with the cooperation of the National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a broad, coordinated federal strategic plan for cybersecurity research and development (Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program) to “change the game,” by calling for establishing a science of cybersecurity, transitioning promising cybersecurity research into practice, and bolstering education and training in cybersecurity.
The NSF's Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program is supportive of this strategic plan. SaTC recognizes that cyberspace will continue to grow and evolve, and that advances in science and engineering will create new “leap-ahead” opportunities expanding cyberspace. It further recognizes that cybersecurity must also grow and co-evolve, and that a secure and trustworthy cyberspace will ensure continued economic growth and future technological innovation. Through this solicitation -- a track within the NSF SaTC program -- NSF and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) are announcing a joint partnership in the area of Secure, Trustworthy, Assured and Resilient Semiconductors and Systems (SaTC: STARSS) focused on research on Design for Assurance. Specifically, NSF and SRC will support research on new strategies for architecture, specification and verification, especially at the stages of design in which formal methods are currently weak or absent, with the aim of decreasing the likelihood of unintended behavior or access, increasing resistance and resilience to tampering, and improving the ability to provide authentication throughout the supply chain and in the field. The SaTC:STARSS solicitation will support proposals of up to $500,000 in total budget, with durations of up to three years.