Agile Applied Research for Cybersecurity: Creating Authoritative, Actionable Knowledge When Speed Matters

Securing information systems from attack and compromise is a problem of massive scope and global scale. Traditional, long-term research provides a deep understanding of the foundations for protecting systems, networks, and infrastructures. But sponsors often need applied research that will create results for immediate application to unforeseen cybersecurity events. The Agile Research process is a new approach to provide this type of rapid, authoritative, applied research. It is designed to be fast, transparent, and iterative, with each iteration producing results that can be applied quickly. The idea is to engage subject-matter experts fast enough to make a difference. Agile Research requires new levels of collaboration and performance, plus adaptive organizational structures that support this new way of working. In addition to its application in Government, Agile Research is being employed in academic settings, and is influencing how research requirements and researchers are identified and matched, and research traineeship.