Helping Early-Career Researchers Navigate NSF Cybersecurity Funding
University of Maryland researchers played a key role in a recent national workshop aimed at helping early-career faculty strengthen their cybersecurity research proposals and compete for National Science Foundation (NSF) funding. The 2025 NSF Security, Privacy, and Trust in Cyberspace (SaTC) Aspiring Principal Investigator Workshop—held on December 15–16 at George Washington University—brought together more than 65 early-career faculty from across the country. The attendees were all researchers involved with security, privacy and trustworthy computing that had previously not received SaTC funding. UMD researchers Michelle Mazurek, an associate professor of computer science, and Dana Dachman-Soled, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, worked closely with Adam Aviv, an associate professor of computer science at GW, to organize the event. The workshop was designed to help guide participants through NSF proposal process, while also aligning their research with the goals of SaTC 2.0, which aims to advance a secure, resilient and trustworthy global cyber ecosystem. Through a series of panel discussions and interactive sessions, participants learned how to better develop their research ideas into proposals, structure competitive submissions, avoid common pitfalls, and understand the merit review process. Several panels featured guidance from experienced researchers and NSF insiders, with a particular focus on first-time applicants. Mazurek and Dachman-Soled—who are core members of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2)—relied on their own experience as both SaTC grantees and review panelists to help make the workshop highly practical. Leveraging their own networks within the cybersecurity research community, they recruited senior mentors to work directly with workshop attendees, offering them advice and feedback throughout the event. “We wanted to design the workshop to be as useful and meaningful as possible,” says Mazurek, who is the director of MC2. “By bringing together experienced mentors and early-career faculty, we were able to provide hands-on guidance that reflects how SaTC proposals are really evaluated.” A distinctive feature of the workshop was its mock review panels. Participants submitted short proposal drafts in advance and then revised them during the workshop based on real-time feedback, giving them insight into how NSF reviewers discuss and assess submissions. The 2025 workshop marked the third iteration since Aviv helped revamp the program and first hosted it at GW in 2023. This year’s workshop included six current NSF program officers, four former program officers, and senior faculty from institutions nationwide. —Story by Melissa Brachfeld, UMIACS communications group
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