CANARIE Issues Funding Call to Bolster Cybersecurity Across Canada’s Research and Education Institutions

$600K to be invested in institutions connected to Canada’s Research and Education Network

[Ottawa, ON]

CANARIE, a vital component of Canada’s digital infrastructure supporting research, education and innovation today announced an innovative Call for Proposals that invests in universities, colleges, and research institutions to progress towards the development of an overarching, cohesive, and comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.

As security issues become more complex, universities, colleges, and research institutions require increasingly sophisticated tools to protect their intellectual property, and private, unique or confidential data. The purpose of this Security Project, offered as a joint initiative with Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) Canada, is to facilitate the development of a community of institutional security specialists to increase institutional awareness of security issues.

Participants will benefit from learning about new approaches to information security and interacting with top security leaders and researchers within the intrusion detection community. Training and informal collaboration sessions will strengthen cybersecurity knowledge for participants and their respective institutions.

This Call is open to universities, colleges, and research institutions connected to the twelve provincial and territorial network partners1 which, along with CANARIE, collectively form Canada’s Research and Education Network (NREN). Verify that your institution is connected to the NREN.

There are two (2) ways to participate in the Joint Security Project Call:

  1. Funded Participation – CANARIE will fund 27 institutions up to a maximum of $15K each for a period of 6 – 8 months. Selected institutions will collaboratively deploy a standard monitoring system and form a community of practice of institutional security specialists who will operate a national system.
  2. Non-Funded Participation – Institutions that do not require funding are encouraged to participate in the Joint Security Project by deploying a standard monitoring system and making a member of their technical staff available to collaborate for a period of 6 – 8 months.

CANARIE is also seeking proposals for one institution to deploy an Aggregation and Visualization Platform. CANARIE will invest up to $87K in the selected institution to deploy their existing security aggregation and visualization platform to meet the needs of the Joint Security Project.

The deadline for all proposals is March 27, 2017.

How to Apply

Detailed information on this Call for Proposals, including timelines and eligibility criteria, may be found at: canarie.ca/network/cybersecurity-initiatives/jsppilot

About CANARIE’s Cybersecurity Initiatives

Through cybersecurity collaborations, partnerships, and program initiatives, CANARIE drives to strengthen the overall security of Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN).

CANARIE champions the advancement of collaborative national security operations to strengthen the overall state of network security at connected institutions within Canada’s NREN.  Working with Canadian and international collaborators, CANARIE and its twelve provincial and territorial network partners are building a collaborative community of security innovators to contribute to a shared security strategy, with the goal of enhancing capabilities in cyber threat detection, and increasing cybersecurity services and mitigation strategies.

About CANARIE

CANARIE strengthens Canadian leadership in science and technology by delivering digital infrastructure to support world-class research that directly benefits all Canadians.

Twelve provincial and territorial network partners, together with CANARIE, collectively form Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN). Canadians at universities, colleges, research institutes, hospitals, and government laboratories rely on this ultra-high-speed network to collaborate in data-intensive, cutting-edge research and innovation within Canada and with colleagues in over 100 countries.

Beyond the network, CANARIE funds and promotes reusable research software tools to accelerate scientific discovery.  CANARIE also supports Research Data Canada as it leads national research data management initiatives, and through the Canadian Access Federation, provides identity management services that enable secure, ubiquitous connectivity and content access to the academic community. To boost commercialization in Canada’s technology sector, CANARIE offers cloud resources to startups through its DAIR service, and links a powerful community of public and private sector partners in the Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN).

Established in 1993, CANARIE is a non-profit corporation, with the majority of its funding provided by the Government of Canada.


1 Alberta: Cybera | British Columbia: BCNET | Manitoba: MRnet | New Brunswick: ECN | Newfoundland: ACORN-NL | Northwest Territories: Aurora College | Nova Scotia: ACORN-NS | Ontario: ORION | PEI: UPEI | Quebec: RISQ | Saskatchewan: SRNET | Yukon: Yukon College