The Canadian Safety and Security Program (CSSP) is a federally-funded program.

The program’s mandate is to strengthen Canada’s ability to anticipate, prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural disasters, serious accidents, crime, and terrorism through the convergence of science and technology (S&T) with policy, operations, and intelligence.

The CSSP is led by Defence Research and Development Canada’s Centre for Security Science (DRDC CSS), in partnership with Public Safety Canada, which provides security and public safety policy guidance to the program. The CSSP supports federal, provincial, or municipal government-led projects in collaboration with response and emergency management organizations, non-governmental agencies, industry, and academia.

Current Status

The CSSP is requesting submissions for innovative project proposals that address identified public safety and security capability priorities, which may include common security and defence requirements. The Call for Proposals (CFP) Solicitation was announced in September 2012 for a period of four years, with proposals being accepted during an annual bid submission period from 2012 - 2015. This process is administered by Public Works and Government Services Canada, on behalf of Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC). Interested bidders should consult the CSSP information available on buyandsell.gc.ca: https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-SV-059-27907

For this bid submission period, up to $10 million will be available as of May 2015, for new projects under the CSSP. Proposals can be submitted from September 10, 2014, closing on October 01, 2014. The selected projects will be announced in March 2015.

A Collaborative Model

Through projects, studies, exercises, workshops and other activities, the CSSP creates opportunities for S&T experts to work with partners from different public safety and security fields to support the development of knowledge, tools, processes and strategies that are essential for safeguarding Canada, its people, institutions, and infrastructure. This collaborative model ensures that key organizations from government, industry, academia and international organizations are brought together to work on the most pressing safety and security issues facing Canada.

Making Investments to Achieve Strategic Objectives

The CSSP funding will support projects and activities that respond to Canadian public safety and security priorities and address capability gaps. These gaps are identified in consultation with safety and security communities of practice, representing policy, operational and intelligence experts.

Ultimately, investments must contribute to achieving the program’s primary goal of ensuring that Canadians and their institutions have a greater resilience to global and domestic public safety and security threats. These efforts are guided by a set of long-term goals and outcomes: Canada’s economic vibrancy and sovereign integrity is maintained through resilient critical infrastructure and the efficient flow of people, goods, and services across its borders and ports of entry; a robust, connected, and multi-jurisdictional security/intelligence and national emergency management system is in place, providing an effective full-spectrum preventive, protective, responsive, and adaptive capability of people, responders, and systems from all hazards; and the public is confident that public security threats are being identified, assessed, and addressed in a way that keeps pace with the evolving natures of threats, reflects Canadian values, and maintains the integrity of both the criminal justice and national security systems.