What is the Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership?
The Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership is a grant opportunity which contributes to Australian Government priorities to promote a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific, to pursue our economic, trade and investment agenda and to keep Australia and Australians safe and secure.
Background
The Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership 2020 grant opportunity (round 1) will consider proposals for practical cooperation and collaboration on cyber and critical technology, which will help shape a global technology environment that meets our shared vision of an open, free, rules-based Indo-Pacific region.
Round 1 proposals will focus on Activities to strengthen understanding of ethical frameworks, and to support
research and development of technical standards, for emerging and critical technologies, such as (but not limited to) Artificial Intelligence (AI), next generation telecommunications (5G/6G), Internet of Things (IoT), quantum computing, synthetic biology, blockchain and big data.
Future grant rounds may consider broader proposals for Australia-India collaboration on addressing cyber security challenges, including enhancing the security of the Internet of Things, 5G/6G and cloud technology.
The Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership will run over four years from 2020-21 to 2023-24. This grant opportunity will help shape a global technology environment that meets Australia and India’s shared vision of an open, free, rules-based Indo-Pacific region.
Objectives
The objectives of the Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership are to:
- shape international discourse on cyber and critical technologies, particularly through strengthening understanding of ethical frameworks and supporting research and development of technical standards for emerging and critical technologies;
- deepen institutional linkages between Australian and Indian researchers, businesses and government on cyber and critical technology issues; and
- support India and potentially other countries in the Indo-Pacific to improve their cyber resilience or foster best practices in critical technology development.
Funding
The Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership’s competitive open call grant round 1 and subsequent rounds are anticipated to allocate up to around $6.5 million from 2020-21 to 2023-24. Up to around $500,000 is anticipated to be available for allocation in 2020-21, with the total annual amount available to grow each year subject to budget appropriations
For any single grant proposal, the minimum is $150,000 per year and the maximum amount is $500,000 per year. Multiyear grants will be considered up to a maximum of $500,000 per year for up to two years from 2020-21 to 2021-22. Grant funding for activities in 2021-22 will be contingent on funding becoming available to DFAT under the Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership.
Eligible Projects
To be eligible your project must:
- support the intended objectives of the AICCTP be designed around the area of focus for the AICCTP’s 2020 grant opportunity; and
- include eligible activities and eligible expenditure.
Eligible activities must relate directly to the project and could include:
- joint research projects
- industry specific user guides, advisories, standards etc
- traditional research outputs of books, chapters, journal articles and conference publications
- technical training, conferences, workshops, seminars and events
- mentoring and support in developing critical technology governance frameworks
- new research-related information sharing and communication initiatives
- exchanges and secondments of personnel between Australia and India
- collaboration mechanisms across industries or levels of government
- other critical technology-related best practices and innovative solutions.
Eligible Applicants
To be eligible you must:
- be located in Australia and have a partner institution that is located in India for the purposes of the activity; or
- be located in India and have a partner institution that is located in Australia for the purposes of the activity
and be one of the following entity types:
- a company incorporated in Australia or India
- a company incorporated by guarantee
- an incorporated trustee on behalf of a trust
- an incorporated association
- a partnership
- a joint (consortia) application with a lead organisation
- a not-for-profit organisation
- a think tank or research organisation
- an Australian state or territory government body
- an Indian sub-national government body.
Timing
Applications close 5 February 2021.
