BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The National Science Foundation has awarded Indiana University a $2.25 million grant to establish a scholarship program in the growing and critical field of cybersecurity on the Bloomington campus. A $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research will also establish a Cyber Reserve Officers Training Corps program at IU to pair ROTC cadets with cybersecurity faculty to conduct research.
The two grants secured through the collaboration of numerous academic schools and programs at IU are evidence of the university’s global leadership in applied, interdisciplinary training, which prepares graduates to tackle a wide range of emerging cybersecurity threats and electronic warfare.
The goals of the NSF’s CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service program are aligned with the U.S. National Cyber Strategy to develop a fully capable cybersecurity workforce.
Combining IU’s holistic, world-renowned academic curriculum with real-world internship experiences at state-of-the-art cybersecurity operations facilities at IU and across Indiana, the IU cybersecurity scholarship program and the Cyber ROTC program will produce a strong pipeline of graduates skilled at protecting vulnerable networks, intellectual property, and personal information from attacks and unauthorized access.
“IU’s model of combining interdisciplinary cybersecurity education with real-world practical experience will produce cybersecurity leaders uniquely situated to address pressing government workforce needs,” said Scott Shackelford, executive director of the Ostrom Workshop, chair of the Cybersecurity Program at IU, and the principal investigator on both grants. “We are especially pleased to prioritize the recruitment of students from underrepresented groups in these new scholarship programs, which will help promote a more diverse and inclusive cybersecurity workforce.”
The CyberCorps program reflects a pioneering collaboration between the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering; the Kelley School of Business; and the Maurer School of Law. In exchange for their pursuit of degrees in this area, students will commit to spending a comparable amount of time working in state or federal service.
