Marise Payne & Dr.S.Jaishankar at the Australia-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi. Photo- @MarisePayne
By SAT News Desk
MELBOURNE, 13 Sept 2021: Australia and India are poised to take their Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership (AICCTP) program to the next second level with new grants for institutions of both countries. The decision is the outcome of the recently held Australia-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi.
Australia and India’s cooperation on critical technologies is also viewed as a step forward at diversifying or reducing dependence on related Supply Chains now concentrated to a large extent in China.
This cooperation between the two countries is reflective of Australia’s Cyber and Critical Technologies engagement program. Critical Technologies deal with cyberspace, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), quantum computing, and synthetic biology, says the Executive Summary of the strategy website.
” The Strategy identifies three main pillars – Values, Security and Prosperity – to guide Australia’s international cyber and critical technology engagement:
Values – We will always pursue a values-based approach to cyberspace and critical technology, and oppose efforts to use technologies to undermine these values.
Security – We will always support international peace and stability, and secure, trusted, and resilient technology.
Prosperity – We will always advocate for cyberspace and technology to foster sustainable economic growth and development to enhance prosperity.”
Source- internationalcybertech.gov.au
A media release from Marise Payne, Minister for Foreign Affairs & Minister for Women says, ” The dialogue reflected on progress towards supporting Australia and India’s shared vision of an open, inclusive and resilient rules-based Indo-Pacific region, as supported by the three grants awarded in Round 1.
This second round seeks proposals that focus on strengthening understanding of ethical frameworks, developing best practice and encouraging development of technical standards on critical technologies, including quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
Australia and India’s cooperation on cyber continues to make significant progress and builds upon the Australia-India Framework Arrangement on Cyber and Cyber‑Enabled Critical Technology Cooperation, signed in June 2020.”
Under the Arrangement, Australia and India held the first Joint Working Group on Cyber Security Cooperation on 10 June 2021 and a senior officials’ Cyber Dialogue on 6 July 2021.
Available funding according to the Australian High Commission, New Delhi website is:
For any single grant proposal, the minimum is $150,000 per year and the maximum amount is $600,000 per year. Multiyear grants will be considered up to a maximum of $250,000 per year for up to three years from 2021-22 to 2023‑24. Grant funding for activities in 2022-23 will be contingent on funding becoming available to DFAT under the AICCTP.
In total, we anticipate that a total of up to $1.8 million in funding would be available for single-year and multi-year grant proposals awarded in grant round 2.
Prospective grantees cannot use funding from other Commonwealth, state, territory or local government sources to fund your share of eligible expenditure. DFAT reserves the right to offer less funding than that requested by the applicant.
The last date to submit applications is – 17:00hrs AEDT (11:30hrs IST) on Monday 18 October 2021.
Details of the AICCTP grant program, eligibility requirements and how to apply are available on Australia’s High Commission in India website and the GrantConnect website.
Projects funded in the first round of the AICCTP program in April 2021:
The Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney and the Observer Research Foundation, to develop ethical frameworks and best practices for emerging quantum technologies;
La Trobe University, in partnership with the Indian Institutes of Technology in Kanpur and Gandhinagar, to operationalise ethical frameworks in the critical technology supply chains of global companies; and
The School of Computer Science at the University of Sydney, in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Reliance Jio, and the University of New South Wales, to address privacy and security challenges in next-generation telecommunications networks.
