VOSFIT Collaborative Research Program

The VOSFIT Model Research Program is moving from theoretical consolidation toward collaborative scientific validation and implementation. The purpose of this call is to identify the people and institutions with whom rigorous research teams can be built before proposals are submitted.

From a Theoretical Framework to a Collaborative Research Program

VOSFIT studies complex adversarial systems through the coupled characterization Θ = (V, O, S, F, I, T): Vulnerability, Origin, Strategy, Function, Intention, and Time. The next phase of the program is intended to challenge, validate, extend, and operationalize the model across cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure, global supply chains, uncertainty measurement, temporal reasoning, continuous security verification, and research education.

The objective is not to collect names around a proposal. The objective is to build scientifically credible, multidisciplinary teams around research questions, measurable hypotheses, reproducible methods, appropriate datasets, experimental environments, and sponsor-aligned work plans.

The Ten-Project Research Portfolio

1. Formal VOSFIT Science. Mathematical foundations for multidimensional adversarial-system states, mappings, uncertainty, equivalence, transition, and measurement.
2. Contextual Vulnerability Characterization. Extension of vulnerability analysis using NVD/CVE/CVSS and other authoritative evidence together with origin, strategy, function, intention, and temporal context.
3. APT Strategy and Intention Inference. Strategy switching, substitution, adaptation, campaign progression, functions, and evidence-conditioned intention inference.
4. Probabilistic Origin and Capability Assessment. Origin characterization, capability distributions, contextual constraints, and origin-strategy feasibility mappings.
5. Uncertainty and Temporal Reasoning. Uncertainty metrology, normalization, distributions, time intervals, partial order, and probabilistic task or strategy duration.
6. Agentic and Multi-Agent AI Assurance. Independent characterization of AI strategies, functions, operational objectives, compromise, misalignment, and emergent behavior.
7. Critical-Infrastructure and Supply-Chain Resilience. Interdependency, systemic vulnerability, consequence propagation, resilience, and adversarial conditions across complex systems.
8. Continuous Security Verification. Dynamic verification in confidential, cloud, zero-trust, and changing computing environments.
9. Security Science and CyberAI Research-to-Workforce Academy. A research ladder integrating undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral participation.
10. Shared VOSFIT Research Platform. Schemas, datasets, inference tools, simulations, digital-twin environments, APIs, visualization, and decision-support capabilities.

Who We Are Inviting

ITAICS Research welcomes expressions of interest from organizations and individuals whose expertise can materially strengthen one or more projects. Potential participants include:

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  Universities, colleges, research institutes, laboratories, and nonprofit research organizations.
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  Faculty investigators and prospective PIs or Co-PIs.
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  Independent researchers and subject-matter experts.
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  Postdoctoral researchers.
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  Doctoral and master's students.
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  Undergraduate researchers seeking substantive research experience.
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  Research software engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity practitioners, systems researchers, and technical contributors.
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  Qualified volunteers able to make a defined scholarly, analytical, software, data, visualization, or technical contribution.
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  Qualified companies and other research partners where the prospective project and sponsor permit participation.

Disciplines of Interest

Particularly relevant areas include cybersecurity and security science; artificial intelligence and machine learning; AI assurance; multi-agent systems; computer science and computer engineering; applied mathematics; probability and statistics; uncertainty quantification; formal methods; metrology; cyber-physical systems; critical infrastructure; network science; operations research; global supply chains and logistics; cloud and confidential computing; applied cryptography; data science; visualization; computing education; systems engineering; and related fields.

Students and Postdoctoral Researchers Are Part of the Research Architecture

Institutional and PI/Co-PI Collaboration

Institutions may participate by proposing faculty PIs or Co-PIs, supporting students or postdoctoral researchers, contributing laboratories or testbeds, providing specialized methods or domain expertise, participating in joint proposal development, supporting subaward administration when applicable, conducting independent evaluation, or contributing to validation and technology transition.

Teams will be organized around the scientific needs of each project and the eligibility requirements of the prospective sponsor. Not every participant will be included in every proposal, and participation in this call does not represent a commitment of grant funds or a guaranteed future funded role.

Scientific Expectations

We are especially interested in collaborators willing to challenge the VOSFIT Model scientifically. The model should be compared with alternative representations, evaluated against empirical evidence, tested under uncertainty and incomplete observation, and revised when the evidence requires revision.

This is not a call for endorsements. It is a call for serious research collaboration.

How to Express Interest

Prospective participants should identify one to three project areas of interest and the role they seek. Include a CV or résumé, institutional affiliation where applicable, relevant publications or technical work, anticipated availability, and any material institutional or participation constraints. Students without publications may provide an academic résumé and a concise statement of research interests.

Governance, Authorship, and Intellectual Property

Expression of interest or participation does not transfer ownership of pre-existing VOSFIT theory, publications, software, datasets, marks, or other background intellectual property. Background intellectual property remains with its existing owner. Project-specific arrangements should define roles, authorship, publication, data rights, confidentiality, foreground intellectual property, conflicts of interest, sponsor obligations, security requirements, and institutional responsibilities before substantive nonpublic work begins.