Inside the Year in Research Cybersecurity: The Trusted CI Annual Repor

Trusted CI, the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, completed its second project year under current funding and continues its mission to enable trustworthy NSF science by partnering with cyberinfrastructure operators, publishing valuable resources, and supporting the tools and knowledge needed to secure research progress. 

In our newly released annual report, we reflect on the ways that Trusted CI has grown as an organization, including:

• Expanding our mission to address emerging cybersecurity for research security requirements by adapting our successful cohort model  specifically to address the needs of higher education institutions and by establishing several strategic partnerships and new training initiatives.

• Holding our first Regional Summit, in partnership with the University of Alabama

• Redesigning and redeploying our successful Scholars and Fellows programs, with the collaboration of our partners at the Sustainable Horizons Institute 

For more information, visit our Zenodo page and read the full report.

Welcoming Our 2026 /2027 Trusted CI Fellows

Trusted CI, the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026/27 Trusted CI Fellowship.

Twelve individuals with professional interests in cybersecurity have been selected from a competitive national pool. These Fellows represent a wide range of institutions, disciplines, and experiences, united by a shared commitment to advancing cybersecurity in their communities in support of trustworthy open science.

Throughout their Fellowship year, the Fellows will receive:

• Recognition for their contributions to cybersecurity in the open science community.
• Professional development opportunities, including specialized training.
• Full travel support to participate in the 2026 NSF Cybersecurity Summit in Irvine, CA (October 27-29).

Trusted CI looks forward to supporting their journey and seeing the impact they will make in strengthening the security of scientific cyberinfrastructure.

Please welcome Sanchari Das, Gerard G. Dumancas, Md Jobair Hossain Faruk, Farah Ferdaus, Roberto M. Gutierrez, Brian Koopman, Jerome McClendon, Jaya Preethi Mohan, Mandoye Ndoye, Becky Ortinez, Unnati S. Shah, and Shengjie Xu. 

Please visit our website to learn more about our fellows.

2026 NSF Cybersecurity Summit: Agenda, Posters, & Reminder to register

The 2026 NSF Cybersecurity Summit (Oct 27th - 29th; Irvine, CA) is quickly approaching. 

We have been working hard on Summit planning and are excited to share the Agenda: 
2026 Summit Agenda  

Plenary, training, workshops, and BoF descriptions are here:
2026 Summit Abstracts

The poster session form is open, submit your poster before Sept. 25th to meet the printing deadline: 
Poster Submission Form

The TLP:AMBER/RED form is open, until Sept. 30th: 
TLP:AMBER/RED Submission Form 

Have you registered and booked your travel yet? Registration link and hotel booking can be found on our event page: 
https://www.trustedci.org/summit

Do you have any questions for us? Email us at:
summit@trustedci.org

See you in Irvine!
The Trusted CI Summit Organizing Committee

Join us for the NSF Cybersecurity Summit!

 📢 Registration is still open for this year’s National Science Foundation (NSF) Cybersecurity Summit. ☀️ Please join us at the Beckman Center in Irvine, CA, from October 27–29, 2026. ☀️

The Summit brings together leaders in research cyberinfrastructure (CI), cybersecurity, and higher ed researchers to build a trusting, collaborative community that addresses the community’s core cybersecurity challenges.

Our three-day agenda is packed with networking opportunities, expert-led training, and collaborative workshops designed to give you actionable insights you can use immediately.

Learn more: https://www.trustedci.org/2026-nsf-cybersecurity-summit

Securing the Future of Research: Trusted CI Wraps Pilot Cohort, Launches Second Round

Trusted CI has successfully completed its Research Cybersecurity Cohort pilot, designed to help research organizations address emerging research cybersecurity-related research security requirements (such as NSPM-33).

Assessing and Advancing Cybersecurity

The engagement focused on assessing participating organizations' cybersecurity programs using the Trusted CI Framework and evaluating their implementation of basic cybersecurity controls derived from the list of NSF Critical Controls in the NSF Research Infrastructure Guide [Section 5.3].

Each organization received a tailored “Research Cybersecurity Engagement Report” containing Trusted CI’s strategic and controls-level recommendations to support advancing their cybersecurity programs. The report also included implementation ratings for both a subset of the Trusted CI Framework Musts and the CIS Safeguards that map to the NSF Critical Controls.

The successful pilot cohort included the following organizations:

• Globus at the University of Chicago

• SafeInsights at Rice University

• University of Connecticut (UCONN) & UCONN Health

• US Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS)

Iterative Improvements

Though sufficient processes and training were already in place to launch the pilot, Trusted CI concurrently developed new research security components to integrate into the engagement. This included developing and modifying training materials, mapping the NSF Critical Controls to the CIS Controls, restructuring the engagement to include security controls assessments, and making significant revisions to the final engagement report.

Looking Ahead: The Next Cohort

Building on this success, Trusted CI began a second Research Cybersecurity cohort pilot engagement in July 2026. Participating members include:

• University of Colorado - Boulder

• Grambling State University

• University of Notre Dame

• Southwest Minnesota State University

• University of Utah

Trusted CI is excited to work alongside these higher education institutions to advance their cybersecurity programs, implement best practices, and gather valuable insights on how they are tackling emerging research cybersecurity requirements.

Get in Touch

For more information about the cohort program or our framework, please contact us at info@trustedci.org. 

Trusted CI Report on EDUCAUSE CPPC ’26

Trusted CI released a report on our full-day workshop at EDUCAUSE CPPC on building collaborative, institution-wide approaches to research cybersecurity. You can access the report here. 

The team also presented a public webinar on the workshop and this report. You can view the recording here. 

The team will also be presenting at the 2026 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference. If you have requests for future research security training topics, contact the team at info@trustedci.org.  

Trusted CI Releases NSF Critical Controls Mapping to the CIS Controls

Trusted CI released a resource mapping the NSF Critical Controls to the CIS Controls (v8.1). This resource was designed to help organizations understand and apply the NSF Critical Controls by highlighting the equivalent CIS Safeguards, alongside Trusted CI commentary. This mapping represents Trusted CI’s interpretation and translation of the NSF language used for each control.  

View the mapping  ➡️

Looking Ahead

Trusted CI plans to add mappings for other established cybersecurity standards, such as NIST SP 800-171, as well as case studies of how institutions are implementing these controls. If you have any questions or think you might be a good candidate for a case study on implementing an NSF Critical Control, please reach out to info@trustedci.org.