Adversarial Resilient Cyber Effects for Decision Dominance Collaborative Research Program | W911NF 23 S 0016

Opportunity Information: Apply for W911NF 23 S 0016

The Adversarial Resilient Cyber Effects for Decision Dominance Collaborative Research Program (ARCEDD-CRP) is a Department of Defense (Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory) funding opportunity focused on basic and applied research that strengthens how the Army understands and achieves short, decisive advantages in cyberspace. The central idea is to expand the scientific foundations behind "cyberspace windows of superiority" (CWoS), meaning time-bounded periods when friendly forces can operate in and through cyberspace with a meaningful advantage and without prohibitive interference. The program is looking for research that makes these windows easier to identify, predict, and deliberately create, so military and civilian leaders can have multiple credible courses of action during contested cyber conditions. While the motivation is Army multidomain operations, the results are also intended to translate to civilian critical infrastructure and other commercial environments where reliable connectivity and resilient networked operations matter.

The opportunity is organized around two major research thrusts that can be proposed independently or together. The first thrust is to explore and define CWoS in a more rigorous, measurable, and operationally useful way, including theory, models, and experimental methods that help determine when a window exists, what conditions produce it, how long it might last, and what actions can widen, extend, or exploit it. The second thrust, Adversarial Resilient Cyber (ARC), is about the defensive capabilities that help create or preserve those windows even when the defender is under active attack or starting from a disadvantage. ARC research is expected to cover methods that resist intrusions, reduce attacker success probabilities, adapt during contact, and recover quickly with minimal loss of mission capability, with emphasis on autonomy and robustness in contested settings.

A major emphasis across the program is cyber deception and cyber resilience, tied together with machine learning, adversarial machine learning, and game-theoretic decision-making. On deception, the government is interested in techniques that increase attacker uncertainty and disrupt attacker reconnaissance, including camouflage (making important assets look unimportant), decoys and honeypots (making fake assets look real), and dynamic manipulation of what an adversary believes about the network. Deception is framed not only as a way to waste attacker time, but also as a way to generate early warning signals for intrusion detection and to shape attacker behavior in ways that preserve friendly freedom of action during critical time periods. On resilience, the program describes a two-part approach: building systems that proactively resist or limit the chance of compromise, and then planning for imperfection by developing "fight-through" and rapid recovery mechanisms so operations can continue and capabilities can be restored quickly even after successful attacks.

Because the Army expects to rely heavily on autonomous, machine-speed cyber operations, the program specifically calls out the risks that come with machine learning in adversarial environments. Proposers are expected to consider how ML systems can be attacked through evasion, data poisoning, model inference, and related techniques, and to develop defenses that still produce reliable decisions when the data, sensors, or learning process are under manipulation. The research is expected to be grounded in realistic constraints found in tactical networks, such as limited compute, low bandwidth, energy limits, and high operational complexity caused by interconnected systems and high data rates. In other words, solutions that only work in unconstrained enterprise settings or assume perfect communications are less aligned with the program goals.

The ARCEDD-CRP is structured as a collaborative research effort executed through individual awards under a Cooperative Agreement. Topics run on a two-year cycle and are expected to start with "seedling" awards over an initial period, followed by an option for additional funding for up to three more years based on progress and end-of-seedling assessment. The solicitation may be amended annually to refine problem statements and scope for a given cycle, but each cycle is tied to longer-term program goals and aligned with internal Army research programs. The model is designed to encourage close collaboration among awardees and with ARL researchers, and it also allows for the possibility of additional growth funding (called Enhanced Research Program funding) becoming available during the period of performance, though proposals are instructed not to mention or plan around that mechanism.

Experimentation and demonstration are not optional in spirit, even if specific deliverables vary by topic. The government expects theories and methods to be assessed through innovative experiments using datasets, network scenarios, system configurations, and ML models that are relevant to Army tactical and enterprise environments. Researchers are expected to implement and demonstrate their results, with the most promising approaches potentially transitioning into deeper collaboration with Army researchers for internal evaluation on Army experimentation platforms and modeling and simulation systems.

Eligibility is listed as unrestricted in the notice, and the program encourages a diverse mix of applicants, including universities, for-profit companies, and nonprofits, with teaming allowed but not required. However, there is a significant constraint: due to facility access rules and the use of certain restricted software and modeling and simulation products, all individuals performing work under this program must be U.S. citizens. On-site collaboration at ARL facilities is encouraged, and any personnel needing access to those facilities must meet the citizenship requirement. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers face additional restrictions and can only participate if they demonstrate the work is not otherwise available from the private sector and provide sponsor documentation confirming their authority and compliance with their FFRDC agreement.

Key administrative details from the posting include the Funding Opportunity Number W911NF-23-S-0016, a discretionary science and technology R&D program (CFDA/Assistance Listing 12.630) administered by the Department of Defense, using a Cooperative Agreement instrument. The original closing date listed is 2023-10-13, and the notice indicates awards will be made to a single entity per award (even if that entity includes subawards), with work potentially performed in any location as long as collaboration and access requirements are met.

• The Department of Defense in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Adversarial Resilient Cyber Effects for Decision Dominance Collaborative Research Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-08-16.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-10-13. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

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