Call for Research Proposals 2016
As part of the continuing efforts to advance the cyber security research community at Tel Aviv University, the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center is soliciting proposals for funding research projects in all aspects of cyberspace security. The emphasis will be on high quality cross-disciplinary, groundbreaking and forward-looking research.
Research topics include (but are not limited to):
- Data, computer, and network security
- Hardware and embedded systems security, security of Internet of Things
- Cybersecurity oriented cryptography and cryptanalysis
- Design and analysis of security mechanisms
- Anomaly detection, warning and intervention
- Security of cyber-physical systems and national infrastructure
- Security of big data and complex systems
- Computer and human vision for cyber security
- Smart cities and smart societies
- Human interaction and usability aspects of cyber security
- Economics of cyber security
- Finance and monetary systems in cyberspace
- Regulation and legislation of cyberspace: national and international aspects
- Privacy and personal data in cyberspace
- Anonymization and sanitization
- Protection and privacy of medical and genomic data
- Cybersecurity & information sharing: Legal, economic and cultural aspects
- Ethics of cyberspace and cybersecurity research
- Organizational aspects of cybersecurity
- Civil liberties and information in cyberspace
- Law enforcement in cyberspace
- Political and military aspects of cyber security and cyber warfare
- Social aspects of cybersecurity, e.g. individuals vs. society, cyberspace professions
- Cybersecurity education and awareness
- Cybersecurity and artificial intelligence
The call is open to all the active academic staff at Tel Aviv University. Interdisciplinary and collaborative research, both by researchers within the university and with other researchers from Israel and abroad is encouraged. Funding can be used for supporting graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and academic visitors, research assistants, travel literature, and equipment (subject to limitations mentioned below).
To encourage collaboration with the industry, this year there is an additional track of joint proposals with industrial partners: The tracks are:
(1) Academic track proposals:
Proposed projects can last up to 3 years. Three types of projects will be considered:
1. Individual proposals of a single Principal Investigator (PI). These proposals are capped at 250,000 NIS per year.
2. Collaborative proposals of two or more PIs, with a cap of 600,000 NIS per year.
3. Larger interdisciplinary proposals of three or more PIs from different academic disciplines. The cap is NIS 1,000,000 per year.
(2) Industry track proposals:
These proposals should be co-funded by one or more companies and the ICRC. In addition to a PI from TAU, there should be at least one co-PI from each participating company. These proposals should explain how the collaboration helps the proposed research and how the collaboration is to be done. Proposed projects can last up to 3 years with up to NIS 1,200,000 per year. The expectation is of roughly even split in funding between the ICRC and the companies involved.
(3) Exploratory proposals:
These are smaller proposals for more exploratory research. Here the cap is NIS 80,000 and the duration of the research project is up to one year.
Eligibility
A Principal Investigator can be any prominent professional in the relevant topic of research. In academic & industry proposals, the lead PI must be senior academic staff member at TAU. In exploratory proposals, the PI has to be either a member of the senior academic staff of TAU, be a PhD student or a post-doctoral researcher at TAU. In the latter two cases, a support letter from a member of the senior academic staff at TAU must be provided.
TAU Principal Investigators may be eligible for a university-funded salary supplement (תוספת ב) of up to 25% subject to budget restrictions and University regulations. This supplement will not be taken from the grant budget. In addition, in industry track proposals, TAU Principal Investigators can be eligible also for salary supplement (תוספת א) funded by the participating companies.
Proposal structure and Review
Proposals should be written in English, and contain:
- A three-page description of the proposed research and its relevance to the current call. Additional supporting material can be submitted and will be read at the discretion of the referees. Please state the track you wish to apply for. Submissions should include a clear presentation of:
- The issues addressed, the relevance to cyber-security, and the state of the art.
- The proposed solutions, methodologies or technical approaches, and their novelty.
- The fitness of the research team to conduct the proposed research.
The feasibility of conducting the proposed research within the time and funding limitations.
- CV of the principal investigator(s).
- A declaration of current support for the PIs from any other funding sources. Detailed budget with year-by-year proposed expenditures according to the provided template.
The review process will consist of two stages. In all tracks except for te exploratory track, the PIs whose proposals have advanced to the second stage will be asked to prepare a more detailed proposal. Exploratory proposals will typically not be required to submit additional information. PIs may also be invited for a personal meeting for further review, at the discretion of the academic committee
An individual researcher can be a PI in at most two proposals submitted to this call. Winners of call for proposals 2014 are eligible to submit a proposal for this call.
Proposals must be submitted through the following web form: https://secure.iacr.org/websubrev/tauicrc06/submit
The contact for questions is icrc@post.tau.ac.il.
Submission deadlines:
For industry-track proposals: 8.6. 2016, 11:59 pm.
For the other proposals: 2.6.2016, at 11:59 pm
The academic committee reserves its discretion as to awarding the grants, their internal division, including the option of not awarding any grant in one or more of the above tracks. The committee’s decisions will be final.
PIs of winning proposals will be required to provide a report on the results of the funded research at the end of each six months of the funding term and a final report at the end of the term. In addition, PIs will be required to take active role in the life of the ICRC. In particular, they will be required to give public presentations of their research, and to supply descriptions of the research according to the center’s request. ICRC should be acknowledged in all public presentations and publications related to the funded research.
Detailed list of possible expenditure items and percentage caps:
- Scholarships for graduate students: up to 100% of proposal
- Scientific and technical staff: up to 40%
- Travel: up to 10%
- Equipment and literature: Up to 10%
- Miscellaneous: Up to 5%
The Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University is funded by generous grants from the Israeli National Cyber Security Bureau and the Blavatnik foundation
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