A €100,000 annual fund launched by cybersecurity company Surfshark will from September accept proposals from university students, researchers, and academics working on cybersecurity awareness projects.
The Cybersecurity Advocacy Fund operates in two cycles each year: September submissions followed by October selection, and February submissions followed by March selection. Successful applicants receive financial support alongside direct collaboration with Surfshark's security team throughout development and implementation.
Three categories are eligible: creative advocacy work such as art installations or interactive campaigns that make digital threats tangible for wider audiences; academic research into cybersecurity risks and human responses to them; and technology ideas including prototypes, tools, or early-stage frameworks that Surfshark's technical staff can help develop.
"The Cybersecurity Advocacy Fund is an investment in expertise that sits outside our own walls. Online scams have become one of the most widespread threats people face, and academic research and creative thinking are well placed to examine why they keep working," said Gabriele Sinkeviciute, Head of Product at Surfshark.
The fund has already supported one project: 'Bot or Not?', developed by interactive design students at Malmö University, which had participants attempt to identify bot-written social media comments. The project mapped the emotional triggers that cause people to miss bot-generated content — the kind of work that rarely gets commissioned by commercial security teams.
"Those findings are a perfect example of the unique insights we can gain by looking at digital safety from different angles. We want to fund more projects like this, which is why the fund is open to students and academics from any discipline whose perspective can help make the digital world safer," Sinkeviciute said.
For the 2026 cycles, the company is placing particular interest in scam-related projects: both awareness initiatives and anti-scam protection tools. Applicants must be enrolled students, employed university faculty, or representatives of an officially recognised university group. Submissions are reviewed against four criteria: relevance to cybersecurity awareness, clarity of the proposal, originality, and potential impact.
Surfshark, headquartered in the Netherlands with offices in Lithuania and Poland, appears on the FT1000 list of Europe's fastest-growing companies. Applications are accepted by email in English at advocacyfund@surfshark.com; full details are at surfshark.com/cybersecurity-advocacy-fund.
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