Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan Implementation Roadmap

Key Chapter Title List

1. About the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)
2. About the Cybersecurity and Information Assurance Interagency Working Group (CSIA IWG)
3. About This Document
4. Research Priority: Achieving Cybersecurity Through a Human-Centered Approach
5. Research Priority: Empowering Organizations to Address Cybersecurity Threats
6. Research Priority: Cybersecurity Education and Workforce Development
7. Research Priority: Establishing and Negotiating Trust
8. Research Priority: Designing for Cyber Resilience
9. Federal Priority Application Scenario: Protecting Software and Hardware Supply Chains
10. Federal Priority Application Scenario: Achieving Secure and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence
11. Federal Priority Application Scenario: Securing a Clean Energy Future
12. Cross-Reference Table of Key Agency Cybersecurity R&D Projects

Document Introduction

This document is an official report released in November 2024 by the Cybersecurity and Information Assurance Interagency Working Group (CSIA IWG) under the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program of the U.S. National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), as required by the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014. Its core purpose is to provide specific implementation details for Fiscal Year 2025 for the "Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan 2023." By enumerating key federal research and development projects, it guides interagency resource coordination to address current and future complex cybersecurity challenges.

The report begins by detailing its organizational structure, including the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) as the primary mechanism for coordinating science and technology policy across the Executive Branch, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) which provides science and technology advice to the President, and the NITRD Subcommittee responsible for guiding federal information technology research and development programs. As the core implementing body, the mission of the Cybersecurity and Information Assurance Interagency Working Group (CSIA IWG) is to advance solutions to pressing cybersecurity issues by coordinating federal cybersecurity R&D investments and activities, developing joint research strategies, and fostering industry-academia-government interaction.

The document's content is closely structured around the five research priorities and three federal priority application scenarios established in the 2023 Strategic Plan. The five research priorities include: Human-Centered Cybersecurity, which integrates human and social values, needs, and capabilities throughout the lifecycle of information systems and solutions; Empowering Organizations to Address Threats, which develops methods to understand, analyze, and manage cybersecurity, cyber resilience, and privacy risks; Cybersecurity Education and Workforce Development, encompassing education, training, and public awareness; Establishing and Negotiating Trust, dedicated to building, enforcing, and verifying trust at all levels of computing; and Designing for Cyber Resilience, aimed at designing systems capable of withstanding attacks and maintaining critical functions even when compromised. The three priority application scenarios focus on protecting software and hardware supply chains, achieving secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence, and securing a clean energy future.

As a core component of the report, a detailed cross-reference table systematically lists the primary cybersecurity R&D projects for Fiscal Years 2024, 2025, and future planning for over ten key federal agencies, including the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Army, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR). This table visually demonstrates the alignment of each project with the aforementioned five research priorities and three application scenarios. For example, DARPA's Enhanced SBOM for Optimized Software Maintenance project relates to supply chain security, DOE's Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator project relates to clean energy security, and NSF's Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) large program broadly covers multiple priority areas. This roadmap is not only a planning document for federal R&D investment but also a key reference for understanding the national-level priorities in cybersecurity technology and the logic behind the construction of the U.S. defense architecture.