Demand management
Demand management is not currently being applied to this funding opportunity. However, should the level of interest exceed what can be managed within the assessment process, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) may introduce limits on the number of applications that can be submitted. Further details will be clearly communicated where this is the case. UKRI encourages organisations to support applicants in preparing well-planned, high-quality applications that are competitive for funding relative to the funding opportunity.
Aim
This funding opportunity will fund a set of one-year awards to support the development of a BIST-funded open-source hardware security research platform.
Context
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) is funding work to develop an industry-standard, open-source hardware security research platform to strengthen the UK’s capability to design, test and assure secure hardware, and to support commercial uptake.
The platform would provide a shared environment bringing together academic research and industry challenges, enabling researchers to work on the problems companies face in practice and supporting clearer pathways into commercial use.
The platform itself will be designed to be flexible and easily adapted to enable research teams to prototype new innovations.
The shared platform will provide:
- resources, training, and education in hardware security
- improved hardware security best practices and reduced barriers to their adoption
- novel academic research outputs spanning semiconductor security vulnerabilities, attacks, mitigations, and security-aware electronic design automation (EDA) tools
- strengthened translation of academic research into real-world impact
- evidence-based recommendations to industry, government, and standards bodies to support policy development and advance chip security standards and legislation
Two rounds of funded research opportunities will:
- support the initial design of a platform ahead of an intended first tape-out
- evaluate and improve the security of iterative platform designs
Scope
This semiconductor security research funding opportunity will be launched as the first of two opportunities linked to the platform.
The first funding opportunity will support targeted one-year research projects that run in parallel with the development of the initial platform architecture design. The purpose of this funding opportunity is to generate research outputs that can directly inform design decisions for the first iteration of the platform before an initial tape-out.
Projects will be expected to undertake research that advances semiconductor security and produces outputs relevant to the development of the open-source platform.
This could include research into:
- semiconductor security vulnerabilities, attacks and mitigations
- security-aware EDA tools
- hardware security design methodologies
- other approaches that improve the security of semiconductor systems
Expected outcomes include:
- research findings that directly inform the architecture and design of the initial platform ahead of a first tape-out
- improved hardware security design methodologies and best practices that can be adopted within the platform and more broadly across the sector.
In the longer-tern, outputs will allow for stronger translation of UK academic research into practical, real-world semiconductor security applications through integration with an industry-standard platform. They will also provide evidence and insights that can ultimately support industry, government and standards development in chip security.
A future funding opportunity will focus on evaluating and improving the security of the initial platform design and processes, and inform the design roadmap for future iterations.
Duration
The duration of the funded awards will be 12 months.
Funding available
The FEC of your project can be up to £300,000. EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC, up to £240,000.
Funding for this opportunity comes from the BIST Semiconductors Unit.
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.
As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.
See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.
