IU secures $2M grant for cybersecurity scholarships
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) – The National Science Foundation has awarded Indiana University a more than $2 million grant to establish a scholarship program in the cybersecurity field. The university says 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.
IU says the NSF’s CyberCorps grant will be used to develop the Scholarship for Service program, which aligns with the U.S. National Cyber Strategy to develop a fully-capable cybersecurity workforce.
The university says CyberCorps students will participate in internships with one of its cybersecurity organizations, including the OmniSOC, the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, and the Research and Education Network Information Sharing and Coordination Center.
“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, chair of the Cybersecurity Program at IU. “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.”
IU says the scholarship program and the Cyber ROTC program will produce a pipeline of graduates skilled at protecting vulnerable networks, intellectual property, and personal information from attacks and unauthorized access. The scholarship program will support 16 IU students over five years.
Faculty from the Luddy School, the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Kelley School, all at IU Bloomington, secured the $250,000 Department of Defense grant.
The goal of the Cyber ROTC program is to expose cadets to Navy and Marine Corps STEM skills, content, careers, facilities and personnel while growing a capable and trained to defend against emergent cyber and electronic warfare threats.