CyberCorps(R) Scholarship for Service | 23 574

Opportunity Information: Apply for 23 574

The CyberCorps(R) Scholarship for Service (SFS) program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity designed to help the United States build a stronger, more capable cybersecurity workforce for public service. The program is grounded in the reality that modern life depends heavily on interconnected digital systems, and that this dependence creates persistent risks for government, critical infrastructure, organizations, and individuals. The opportunity emphasizes that improving cybersecurity is not just a technical challenge involving secure system design and engineering, but also a human and organizational challenge shaped by behavior, decision-making, and policy. In that sense, SFS supports cybersecurity as a multidisciplinary field that blends computing, engineering, privacy, and the social and behavioral dimensions of security.

This program is authorized under the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014 (as updated by subsequent National Defense Authorization Acts and the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022). NSF administers the scholarship program in coordination with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Each agency has a complementary role: NSF focuses most heavily on expanding the pipeline and improving education and training capacity, OPM is closely tied to federal hiring and long-term retention of graduates, and DHS supports the partnership-building between universities and government organizations.

At its core, SFS provides funding to institutions of higher education to establish or continue scholarship programs in cybersecurity. The purpose is to recruit, educate, and graduate students who are prepared to take on cybersecurity roles that support government missions. The program is explicitly tied to national workforce goals, with an emphasis on increasing both the number and diversity of qualified candidates entering government cybersecurity positions, improving the overall capacity of U.S. higher education to educate cybersecurity professionals (including the R&D workforce), strengthening the ability of the federal government to hire, track, and retain SFS graduates, and building practical partnerships between universities and federal, state, local, and tribal government entities.

A central requirement of the program is the service obligation: students who receive SFS scholarships must work after graduation in cybersecurity roles supporting the mission of a federal, state, local, or tribal government organization, or other qualifying entities, for a period at least equal to the length of their scholarship support. This obligation is a defining feature of the opportunity because it ensures that federal investment in education directly translates into cybersecurity capacity for public-sector needs.

Institutions applying to run an SFS scholarship program must show clear, documented evidence that they already have a strong cybersecurity academic program. The solicitation highlights common forms of evidence, such as ABET accreditation in cybersecurity or designation as a National Security Agency (NSA) and DHS Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in areas like Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE), Cyber Operations (CAE-CO), or Research (CAE-R), though it also allows for equivalent documentation demonstrating program strength. In other words, the grant is intended to scale and formalize proven cybersecurity education programs into structured scholarship pipelines connected to government workforce placement.

In addition to supporting direct scholarship pipelines, the solicitation notes that NSF also supports broader efforts to increase national capacity in cybersecurity education through related pathways, including the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace - Education Designation (SaTC-EDU) and other programs. This frames SFS as part of a wider national strategy: not only producing graduates for immediate public-sector roles, but also strengthening the educational ecosystem that trains cybersecurity professionals over the long term.

From the published opportunity data, this is a discretionary NSF grant (CFDA 47.076) in the science and technology research and development category. The listed award ceiling is $5,000,000, with an expectation of about 16 awards under the referenced competition (Funding Opportunity Number 23-574; original closing date July 17, 2023). Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a workforce-focused cybersecurity education grant that funds university-based scholarship programs in exchange for a structured commitment that graduates will serve in government cybersecurity roles, helping close persistent talent gaps across all levels of government.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "CyberCorps(R) Scholarship for Service" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.076.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 05, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 17, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $5,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 16 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 23 574

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: