Call for Research Proposals: Building Resilience against Systemic Cyber Risk

Digitalization has enabled tremendous progress in economy and society over the past decades. Global connectivity through the internet and underlying network infrastructure has further accelerated this development. Like with any advance in technology, risks have evolved as well – in case of digitization in the shape of cyber risks.

The Call for research Proposals ‘Building Resilience against Systemic Cyber Risk’ is seeking to improve the understanding of economic resilience against cyber catastrophes (including around strengthening protection, reducing impact and improving recovery protocols). Project teams will be required to make choices around specific cyber catastrophe scenarios as well as the methodology used.

The results of the work should contribute to industries and societies understanding of economic and business resilience against certain cyber risk scenarios by providing inputs on how to assess resilience and suggest best ways to improve it.

Funding Information

• A maximum of three projects will be chosen in this call. A single proposal may be rewarded a maximum amount of 150,000€ in total. It is the applicant’s responsibility to submit a carefully calibrated budget, appropriate for the ambition of the research program and justified in a detailed and coherent manner. The institution to which the PI or the team lead of the PC is associated, has the role of distributing the received funding based on internal agreements.
• Duration: Proposals with a duration of 9 – 18 months are considered eligible for this call.
• The eligible costs are:
  • Salary of the researcher/s (based on institution internal policy)
  • Cost inquired for the collaboration with associated partners
  • Equipment/resources (databases, survey costs, consumables, etc.), academic activities (conferences, workshops, fieldwork, etc.)
  • Outreach activities (beyond academic audiences).

Projects

• The Risk Resilience Partnership aims to support top-tier research on systemic risks. Research project proposals should demonstrate their scientific originality and innovative nature and have the potential to contribute to a step change in the proposal’s specified areas.
• The proposals are expected to:
  • Be of outstanding scientific quality,
  • Create results applicable for risk identification and risk assessment by corporates, and
  • Inform governments and/or private sector on how to build resilience against systemic risks across the specific proposal’s themes.

Target Beneficiaries and Institutional Eligibility

• The grant aims at supporting promising researchers or research groups. Funding recipients need to be academic institutions which can either apply as 1) a Sole Applicant (one academic institution) or 2) Consortium Applicant, (collaboration amongst two or more academic institutions). Project Proposals must always be led by ONE Principal Investigator who is nominated by the institution leading the application process.
• Application from academic institutions across the globe are accepted. Academic institutions are the only eligible direct beneficiaries which may receive funding under this call. Private companies, NGOs, governmental bodies, foundations, independent research centers, cultural institutions (such as museums), and hospitals are not eligible as direct beneficiaries. However, due to the applied nature of the funding, it is possible for academic institutions to collaborate and partner with other organizations from public and private sectors. The non-academic institutions can be listed as associated partners and may receive part of the funding from the institution, agreed upon within each proposal’s own set-ups.

Requirements Applicant

• As Sole Applicant: The Principal Investigator (PI), nominated by an institution, should be of the highest caliber and have demonstrated outstanding research achievements, as evidenced by the usual indicators for assessing academic excellence such as research outputs (e.g., publications, citations), research activities (e.g., organizing networks, being involved in communities) and research impact (e.g., policy reports, specific recognition through awards, etc.). The PI needs to be affiliated with an academic institution that has nominated him to be the Principal Investigator of the Project. It is required that the PI brings together a strong team demonstrating expertise and ability to complete the tasks of the proposed project with the best quality. Ideally, the team shall be composed of promising early career researchers, as well as would reflect the principle of diversity (gender and geography).
• As Consortium Applicant: The requirement and recommended qualification of the Team Lead of the Project Coordinator (PC, the lead university) are identical to those of the Sole Applicant. In addition, the PC team needs to ensure that all partner academic institutions are chosen based on the best possible match of required expertise, skills, availability, and cost-benefit analysis. The PC remains the main contact between the consortium and the contacts of the Partnership. The institution nominating the PC will represent the consortium as the signee of the contract and will receive the related funding.

For more information, visit AXA Research Fund.