Academic Support for Cybersecurity Entrepreneurship (ASCEND)
In 2025, CCI introduced the ASCEND (The Academic Support for Cybersecurity Entrepreneurship and Next-Gen Development) Fund, a mechanism designed to help early-stage companies and startups access and partner with academic subject matter experts (SMEs) to develop and further advance solutions to technical problems they've encountered in industry.
Funded Projects
The CCI Accelerator program supports market discovery and economic impact. We funded 13 projects totaling $975,000 for the 2026 cohort.