The National Science Foundation has invested more than $29 million in scholarships over the next five years to eight universities as part of its CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) program to address the demand for cybersecurity professionals, especially for government agencies.
Founded in 1998, as of December 2021, some 3,842 CyberCorps students have graduated from the program, and a total of 4,773 students have been enrolled in the program since its inception.
The CyberCorps SFS program offers funding to higher education institutions so they can award student scholarships in cybersecurity. Each scholarship recipient agrees to work for a period equal to the duration of the scholarship to support the cybersecurity mission of an approved government organization.
"As cyber threats continue to evolve in complexity, so must our approaches to cybersecurity education and our workforce," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "The cybersecurity talent shortage remains a critical issue in the United States, with businesses and government agencies alike struggling to fill critical cybersecurity positions. These new CyberCorps SFS projects engage diverse student populations and provide innovative and high-quality educational experiences that will ensure our nation is prepared to meet future cyberthreats with a well-trained workforce."
Here's a list of the schools that were awarded scholarship money in the latest round:
- CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: Cyber Defense of Intelligent Systems, Oakland University;
- CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: Preparing Future Cybersecurity Professionals with Data Science Expertise, Fordham University;
- CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: Building the Next Generation Cybersecurity Engineering Workforce, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis;
- CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: Expanding and Strengthening the National Cybersecurity Workforce, State University of New York at Binghamton;
- CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: Cybersecurity Workforce Preparation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Georgia State University;
- CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: Developing the Cybersecurity Workforce in West Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas, University of Memphis;
- CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: Preparing an Interdisciplinary Next-Gen Cybersecurity Workforce, University of Nevada, Reno;
- CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: High-skilled Workforce Development for the Aviation and Aerospace Cybersecurity Domains, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
These new schools join the current 82 universities that are part of the NSF CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program, representing 37 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Prospective students can find more information at CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service (opm.gov) and universities interested in joining the program can find more information here: CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) | Beta site for NSF - National Science Foundation.
