COVA CCI FY 2026 Call for Proposals

Agentic AI for Cybersecurity and Security of Agentic AI Systems

COVA CCI seeks proposals for seed research grants that advance the state of the art of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) for cybersecurity and security of agentic AI systems.

We welcome applications from researchers within COVA CCI institutions, including those researchers who have yet to engage with COVA CCI or each other.

Agentic AI refers to autonomous AI systems that can act independently to achieve goals. The core concept of agentic AI is the use of AI agents to perform automated tasks with limited human intervention. These systems plan, execute, and adapt to complex, multi-step tasks without continuous oversight by using a combination of large language models, reasoning, and action-taking capabilities.

Topics for this call include but are not limited to advancing the state-of-the-art in:

Trustworthy and reliable agentic AI for security operations, including methodologies for evaluating AI agents in security use cases
AI-assisted secure code generation and security enhancement of existing codebases using AI
Securing generative AI and foundation models, including multi-modal models
Security of agentic AI systems, including securing toolchains and frameworks
Threat, intrusion, and anomaly detection in agentic AI systems
Adversarial behavior in the AI space, including watermarking and provenance mechanisms for AI-generated content
Security of multi-agent systems and agent collaborations
Safety and responsible AI for agentic behavior
Security of AI supply chain
Privacy in agentic AI

Objectives of this call include:

To produce seminal contributions to address agentic AI for cybersecurity and security of agentic AI systems, targeting the expansion of this research through competitive grants from the federal government, private sector, philanthropic foundations, and other sources.
To foster interdisciplinary collaboration to produce high-quality research with strong domain knowledge resulting in a high likelihood of future extramural funding.
To produce research contributions that translate into benefits to Virginia companies.
To explore opportunities for innovation (commercialization, entrepreneurship, etc.) in cybersecurity.

Proposal Guidelines

Eligibility

Who Can Serve as Principal Investigator (PI): Researchers and faculty members at public institutions in COVA CCI who are deemed eligible by their home institution to serve as a PI on an external grant are eligible to apply. These institutions include Christopher Newport University, Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, William & Mary, Camp Community College, Eastern Shore Community College, Tidewater Community College, and Virginia Peninsula Community College.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Institution: There are no restrictions or limits.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Investigator: An eligible researcher can participate in one proposal regardless of the role.

Other Requirements:

Proposers must indicate which additional funding opportunities from the federal government or industry (e.g., specific calls, agencies or companies that have expressed interest in the work, etc.) they will pursue to build on the research funded by this call. Proposals must identify alternate funding opportunities should the primary opportunity fail.

Awards

Maximum Award Amount: $80,000 per proposal. Proposals must involve at least two COVA CCI institutions. We cannot award grants to private institutions or institutions outside of COVA CCI. These institutions can participate but cannot be funded by this proposal.

Award Conditions: Selected applicant(s) are expected to participate fully in COVA CCI activities including

Providing materials needed for reports.
Participation in COVA CCI/ CCI meetings.
Act as a reviewer for future COVA CCI calls for proposals.
Responding to data collection requests by COVA CCI/CCI.
Acknowledge COVA CCI support in all publications and presentations resulting from the grant.
The PI is responsible for submitting a final technical report and a final financial report 30 and 60 days following the end of the period of performance.

Full Proposal Format

1. Title Page (one page). Use the provided Title Page which includes name of CFP, Project Title, Project Abstract (no more than 250 words), total budget amount, and name, institution and contact information of PI and Co-PIs.

2. Proposed Research Project Description (up to 3 pages):

Discussion of the technical background and engineering/scientific justification. This should include project objectives and the intellectual merit of the proposed work.
Relevance to CCI. Discussion of alignment of the project with CCI objectives. A brief paragraph describing how the project will advance the state of the art in cybersecurity.
Research Plan. What exactly will you do? How will you meet the objectives? What are the motivations, methods, likely outcomes, milestones, and future directions? If you’ll leverage existing COVA CCI assets and equipment to support the research, describe the equipment/assets and how you’ll use them.
Deliverables: Describe the expected deliverables for the project (publications, demonstrations, intellectual property, etc.) and timeline.

3. Plan for Additional Funding and Impact on the Commonwealth (up to one page):

Identify one or more specific opportunities for additional funding to expand the proposed research. Outline a plan to pursue this funding. See the Requirements section above for more details.
Address the potential for commercialization and economic development and impact from this work.

4. Prior CCI/ COVA CCI Support (up to one page): List all the grants you have received from CCI/ COVA CCI in the past 3 years (start date on or after 1/1/2023). For each grant, you should include

Role:
Project Title:
Period of Performance:
Amount:
Funding Source (CCI/ COVA CCI):
Results: List all the proposals you’ve submitted as a result of this award to federal government and private sector, and other sources and their status (awarded, declined, pending); list all the publications from this award and their status (published, accepted, under review); share other results as you see fit.

5. References (not included in the page count)

6. Budget

A detailed budget and one-page justification must be included.
COVA CCI limits the salary compensation requested in the proposal budget for each senior/key person to no more than one month of their regular salary in any one year. If requesting more than this, you must justify it in the proposal budget, explain why the extra effort is required, and obtain prior approval in the award notice.
Travel should be included to support the PI’s and team members’ attendance at the annual CCI Symposium and COVA CCI events (if needed). The next CCI Symposium is expected to take place in April 2026 in Richmond, VA.
Indirect costs are not allowed.

7. Biographical sketches: Up to three pages for each investigator, using NSF format.

8. Current and pending support for each investigator: You should use a current NSF Current & Pending Support document that contains title of the project, status, source of the support, period of performance, total award amount, and the portion of the award attributed to the investigator.

9. List of Suggested Reviewers (Up to 1 page): Proposers may include a list of suggested reviewers (including email address and organizational affiliation) who they believe are especially well qualified to review the proposal. Proposers also may include a separate list of persons they would prefer not to review the proposal. These suggestions are optional.

10. Letters of Commitment: If applicable, provide letters of commitment (not counted in total page count). Letters of support are not allowed.

Proposal Submission

Proposals must be submitted via email to jcostanz@odu.edu not later than the close of business on January 16, 2026. Late submissions will not be considered. Proposals must be submitted as a single PDF file with the subject line: “COVA CCI FY 2026 Research Call for Proposal”.

Proposals and budgets should go through the appropriate approval process at the PI’s institution. For example, many universities require researchers to include a proposal and budget approved in the standard Office of Sponsored Programs (or your institution’s equivalent) pre-award procedure.

Evaluation Criteria

A committee of individuals, selected for their experience, will review each proposal and make funding recommendations. Evaluation Criteria include:

Substantial intellectual merit related to cybersecurity.
Project objectives and goals are clearly laid out and achievable, includes a project timeline and project deliverables, and describes required budget and resources.
Relevance to the focus of the call.
A clear plan for obtaining future funding from the government, the private sector, philanthropy, etc., and the likelihood of being competitive for the programs identified by the PI.
Substantial broader impacts related to CCI’s mission lines of innovation and workforce development, as well as in diversifying the cyber workforce.

Schedule

Call for Proposal Released: November 14, 2025
Question Period Ends: December 12, 2025
Proposals due: January 16, 2026
Award Notification: March 10, 2026
Period of Performance: April 1, 2026 – March 31, 2027

Example Title Page

2026 COVA CCI Request for Proposals:

Agentic AI for Cybersecurity and Security of Agentic AI Systems

Project Title:

Project Abstract (up to 250 words):

Total Requested Amount:

Requested Amount per Institution:

Name, Title, and Mailing Address for Primary Contact at Each Institution Requesting Funding:

Project Investigators:

PI Name	Institution	Department	Email

Download a template of the Title Page.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many institutions of higher education need to collaborate on a project?

At least two public institutions in COVA CCI must be funded by the proposal. All the project personnel must come from COVA CCI institutions. These institutions include Christopher Newport University, Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, William & Mary, Camp Community College, Eastern Shore Community College, Tidewater Community College, and Virginia Peninsula Community College.

Private institutions or universities outside of COVA CCI may be a part of the proposal, but they cannot receive funding from the call, either directly or indirectly via a subcontract.

Is there a limit to the number of collaborators on a project?

There is no limit. However, the maximum budget Is $80,000.

Is there a limit to the number of proposals I can be a part of?

You can only request funding as a Principal Investigator (PI), co-PI, or funded researcher for a single proposal. You may collaborate on any number of proposals without requesting funding. If researchers have other support, they can be listed on a second (or more) proposal, but they cannot request funding on those proposals.

What does it mean to identify additional funding opportunities?

You can directly identify a funding opportunity. For example, if you have a proposal for the NSF CISE Future CoRe, reference it, including what submission date you are targeting. Please be realistic with the submission date: a proposal for a year-long seed project with a submission deadline of two months from the proposal submission date is not realistic. If you focus on a single additional funding opportunity, ask yourself “What if that opportunity fails? You should address this in your proposal.

Publication acknowledgement for COVA CCI sponsored activities:

Use this language in all publications submitted as part of COVA CCI sponsored activities:

“This work was supported [in part] by the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, an investment in the advancement of cybersecurity R&D, innovation and workforce development. For more information about COVA CCI, visit cyberinitiative.org.”

COVA CCI is supported by the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative and funded through the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Contact: covacci@odu.edu