Helping Early-Career Researchers Navigate NSF Cybersecurity Funding
Researchers in the Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS) were recently active in a workshop aimed at helping early-career faculty strengthen their cybersecurity research proposals and compete for National Science Foundation (NSF) funding.
Michelle Mazurek, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, and Adam Aviv, an associate professor of computer science at George Washinton University, were co-lead organizers of the 2025 NSF Security, Privacy, and Trust in Cyberspace (SaTC) Aspiring Principal Investigator Workshop—held from December 15–16 on the GW campus.
The event 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.
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 says she relied on her own experience as both an SaTC grantee and review panelist to help make the workshop highly practical. Leveraging her own network within the cybersecurity research community, she 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 has an appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). “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
