AustCyber opens fund-matching scheme

The Australian Cyber Security Growth Network – AustCyber – is seeking expression of interest from industry-led cyber security projects that want access to up to $3 million in funding.

The federally funded private entity has established a fund-matching scheme for large and small businesses working on projects that address one or more of the four ‘knowledge priorities’ put forward in its Cyber Security Sector Competitiveness Plan released last year.

Projects must demonstrate “innovative approaches, clear commercialisation applications, pathways and implementation timeframes” and run for no more than 12 months.

The projects value can be between $100,000 and $3 million in any financial year.

“The project must demonstrate a national benefit for Australia, with the results available to the whole cyber security sector as far as possible,” AustCyber said.

The ‘knowledge priorities’ projects are required to tackle cover: ‘emerging prevention, detection and response technologies’; ‘identity, authentication and authorisation in the cyber domain’; ‘ensuring security, privacy, trust and ethical use of emerging technologies and services such as cloud computing, IoT, robotics, machine learning, mobile apps’; and ‘approaches to deal with the increasingly ‘shared’ responsibility of cyber security’.

The first funding round opened today and runs until February 28.

Over the next 10 years, the size of Australia’s cyber security sector could potentially triple, reaching annual revenue of $6 billion by 2026 mdash; up from around $2 billion mdash; according to AustCyber.

“The growing demand for cyber security products and services provides a significant economic opportunity for Australia. Australia’s growth prospects are sizeable if it succeeds in focusing on the unique strengths and advantages it possesses in cyber security. This is true even though the domestic cyber security sector is still in its infancy and the Australian market has so far been dominated by foreign players,” AustCyber wrote in the Competitiveness Plan in April.

Capacity booster

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is also inviting project proposals to its Cyber Cooperation Program.

DFAT is seeking “creative partnering opportunities” with governments around the world and with civil society, academia and the private sector in order to boost Australia’s cyber capacity building efforts in the Indo-Pacific region.

Projects “may involve raising the bar of cyber security, cybercrime capacity building, or pursuing economic and development goals,” as outlined in Australia’s firstInternational Cyber Engagement Strategywhich launched in October.

“Our combined resources, networks and expertise are a force multiplier in pursuit of shared goals,” the department added.

The window for submissions closes on January 22.