Planning: Security Planning for Assessment-driven Resource-constrained Campuses

The Strategic Planning for Advancing Research Compliance (SPARC) project supports the development of a practical planning framework to assist small-to-mid-sized colleges and community colleges in meeting evolving federal research security requirements. These institutions, which educate a significant portion of the STEM workforce, often lack the infrastructure and personnel to navigate complex cybersecurity mandates. SPARC aims to equip under-resourced campuses with strategies that align with their specific needs, enabling them to safeguard research integrity and contribute to national competitiveness. Through collaborative planning, stakeholder engagement, and the public release of toolkits and guidance, this initiative will promote equitable participation in secure research and bolster the resilience of the U.S. academic research enterprise. SPARC will be a 24-month planning initiative to develop a Research Security Planning Framework (RSPF) tailored to four-year colleges and community colleges with limited research compliance infrastructure. The project integrates the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, Schein’s Organizational Change Theory, and Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation model. It will include a national policy scan, case studies at 3–5 research-active institutions, and input from a Technical Working Group (TWG) composed of national experts. Key deliverables include a field scan, literature review, stakeholder interviews, and usability-tested planning tools. The resulting modular framework will help translate federal mandates—such as NSPM-33 and NIST SP 800-171—into actionable guidance, supporting secure, inclusive participation in federally funded research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.