Grant Call 2019

The NSoE– DeST-SCI is pleased to announce the first call for research proposals on design science and technologies for the creation and enhancement of critical infrastructure.

Research Thrusts and Potential Topics

Below is a list of thrusts and corresponding topics that may be submitted for possible award from NSoE DeST-SCI. The list is not comprehensive and PIs are welcome to propose topics that fall under any of the thrusts listed below. Proposals may cut across multiple thrusts.

A. Thrust: Automatic generation of detectors and command validators

  • Creating detectors from design
  • Creating detectors using Machine Learning/AI
  • Anomaly avoidance
  • Attack benchmarking
  • Discovering the “Gold” detector

B. Thrust: Incidence response: Forensics and recovery

  • Machine Learning methods for forensics
  • Recovery tools
  • Recovery strategies in electric power plants
  • Reconfigurable control
  • Recovery under zero-time to damage
  • Recovery approaches using Blockchain
  • Recovering from massive IoT-based attacks

C. Thrust: Attestation and assessment

  • PLC code attestation
  • SCADA code attestation
  • White-box and black-box security testing
  • Resilence assessment of CPS

D. Thrust: Digital twinning

  • Architecture of digital twins
  • Planning and analysis using digital twins

E. Thrust: Attack prevention

  • Novel methods for intrusion protection
  • Cryptographic techniques for attack prevention
  • Authentication and access control
  • System-wide blockchain
  • Side-channel attacks
  • Avoiding IoT-based exploits

F. Thrust: Novel approaches to design secure CI

  • Temper-proofing and data recovery using blockchain
  • Graphical methods to analyze the cascading effect of cyber attacks

Grant Eligibility

  • The Call is open to all organisations in the following three categories defined for the purpose of this Call: academic institutions, research institutions and public agencies.
  • At least one Principal Investigator (PI) must be identified from each academic / research institution / public agency participating in the proposal, with one PI designated as Lead PI and the others as Co-PIs. The Lead PI must be a full-time researcher (or part-time with at least 75% appointment) at a publicly-funded Singapore based Institute of Higher Learning / Research Institution.  
  • A proposal may enlist Collaborators who will contribute to the project in specific manner (e.g., problem specification, requirements, input data, and validation) but who will not participate substantially in project work and creation of Intellectual Properties (IPs), if any.
  • Collaborators are not restricted to any category, local or overseas. Collaborators are not eligible to receive funding from the Grant.
  • All project work must be done in Singapore, unless expressly approved by the NSoE DeST-SCI office.
  • Proposals of similar content, already funded by other government agencies, are not eligible for funding under this grant call.
  • Evidence of pathway to deployment of proposed research is desirable.