IHSAA-26: 2026 Intel Hardware Security Academic Award Intel Hillsboro, OR, United States, September 28-30, 2026 |
| Conference website | https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security/security-practices/security-research.html |
| Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ihsaa26 |
| Abstract registration deadline | June 15, 2026 |
| Submission deadline | June 15, 2026 |
Call for Papers: 2026 Intel Hardware Security Academic Award
Intel is pleased to share the 2026 Intel Hardware Security Academic Award guidelines and invite researchers to submit nominations by June 15th, 2026. This prestigious award is part of Intel’s commitment to foster advancements in solutions, methodologies and tools that enhance the industry’s ability to deliver more secure and trustworthy foundational technologies.
Academic researchers are requested to submit a recently published paper that demonstrates novel research with a meaningful impact on the hardware security ecosystem, including but not limited to Intel’s own products. Researchers may also apply for a special Test of Time award for a paper published at least 10 years ago that has demonstrated significant and lasting impact in the field.
A winner will receive an exclusive invitation to a special event with a senior leader at Intel as well as being recognized on the “Chips and Salsa” Security at Intel podcast. Research articles will be featured on the INT31 Security Research at Intel website. All winners would have the opportunity to present to Intel security research and product development teams. Winner will be announced at Intel Academic Security Workshop in the fall of 2026.
Research Focus Areas
Submissions addressing the following focus areas are highly encouraged:
AI for Security
Methodologies and applications of analytics, machine learning, and advanced AI techniques to strengthen security robustness, threat detection and platform resilience across cloud and edge, including defenses against adversarial AI-driven attacks and accurate differentiation between true security issues and benign ones.
Security for AI
Techniques to analyze, identify, and mitigate emerging threats in AI-enabled systems, including AI models, training and inference pipelines, workloads, accelerators, and Confidential AI technologies.
Cloud to Edge Security
Threat analysis, mitigations, and architectural improvements that strengthen security across cloud, data center, edge, accelerator, communication, and memory subsystems.
Foundational Security Technologies
Advances in confidential computing, safety‑critical systems (e.g., robotics, cyber-physical systems), secure platform architectures, and next‑generation cryptography.
Trusted Manufacturing and Supply Chain Security
Technologies that enhance security and transparency across semiconductor manufacturing and supply chains, enabling trusted production, integration and lifecycle management of products built on heterogenous chiplet architectures.
Resilient Silicon
Architectural, microarchitectural, and circuit‑level innovations that improve silicon resilience against fault injection, side‑channel, and other physical attacks, as well as environmental and transient faults.
Who Qualifies
Any full time, tenured or tenure track (or equivalent) faculty member involved in research may make a submission. Intel will not, however, consider submissions by individuals residing in, or affiliated with, an academic institution located in a U.S. Government embargoed country. Intel also will not consider submissions by individuals on a U.S. Government sanctions list, including individuals affiliated with academic institutions on a U.S. Government sanctions list. Intel employees and their immediate family members are eligible to participate as co-authors but not as primary authors. If an Intel employee/immediate family member is a co-author on a winning paper, such co-author is ineligible to receive the prize awards.
Submission Format
Submissions must reflect only completed research which was first published or presented publicly between December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2025 for the General Award, or published at least 10 years ago for the Test of Time Award. Submissions must demonstrate strong potential for disruptive impact to product security within the scope of the areas defined above. Submissions must be made using the EasyChair CFP submission system (“EasyChair”) and include the following information:
- Short write-up with a maximum of 500 words addressing the following items:
- Research focus and techniques
- Brief summary of current state-of-the-art
- Novel contributions
- Potential impact to the industry, ecosystem, and Intel’s products and technologies
- For Test of Time award submissions: Brief examples of lasting impact are highly desired.
- Prior and future relevant work, if applicable
- Alignment with the above-listed “focus categories”
- Prior awards and recognition of the research
- Accepted conference
- For general award submissions: The paper needs to be accepted, peer-reviewed and published or presented publicly between December 31, 2023 and December 31st, 2025)
- For Test of Time award submissions: The paper needs to be published at least 10 years ago.
- Full paper (camera-ready in PDF format, as submitted and accepted to a conference or journal following peer review).
- Curriculum vitae of applicable authors.
- Affiliation and organization details including administrative contacts for the submitter’s academic institution.
Awardees will be selected by the Intel Hardware Security Academic Award Program Committee. The committee will examine, among other factors, the viability, novelty, originality, and relevance of the submissions with a focus on demonstrating significant contribution and impact on the hardware security ecosystem and Intel products. The committee retains full discretion on the selection of the award winners. Awardees will be required to sign an award acceptance letter.
Notifications to finalists are expected by mid-August 2026. Papers must be submitted electronically via EasyChair at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ihsaa26
All questions about the CFP should be emailed to intel.security.award@intel.com
Deadline
All submissions must be fully submitted via the EasyChair system by June 15th, 2026, at 11:59 PM PT, in order to be considered.
Terms
Intel’s decisions will be final in all matters relating to this program, including whether to grant an award and the interpretation of these additional terms, notices, and disclaimers and the guidelines above (collectively, “Terms and Conditions”). By making a submission, applicants affirm that they have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions.
- Awards must comply with applicable U.S. and international laws, regulations, and policies.
- Intel is authorized to evaluate submissions, to consult with outside experts, in evaluating submissions, and to grant or deny awards using criteria determined by Intel to be appropriate and at Intel’s sole discretion. Intel’s decisions will be final in all matters relating to this program, and applicants agree not to challenge any such decisions.
- Implementation and management of this program and associated awards is subject to change at any time without notice to applicants or awardees and is at the complete discretion of Intel.
- Awardees are responsible for confirming that acceptance of any awards will not be in violation of any university policy regarding such awards and that acceptance of any award is not in exchange for promotion or influence regarding any of Intel’s commercial activities, products, services, or the adoption of Intel-related standards.
- Neither Intel nor the applicant is obligated to enter into a business transaction as a result of the submission. Intel is under no obligation to review or consider any submission.
- Any information collected as part of this award will be used for the administration of the program. This may include sharing of any submitted information within Intel (and contractors) for purposes of selecting awardees, planning visits, public relations (with prior approval), or other purposes reasonably related to the program. Any information collected is also subject to Intel’s privacy policy found at www.intel.com/privacy.
Notices & Disclaimers
Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software or service activation. No product or component can be absolutely secure. Your costs and results may vary. © Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.