Growth of Centre for Secure Information Technologies
The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University Belfast, which has been a beneficiary of the Partnership, has successfully delivered on their original five-year proposal to develop a UK Innovation and Knowledge Centre for Secure Information Technologies. Termed CSIT Phase 1, it aimed to leave a lasting legacy of world-class security research. In Phase 1, CSIT has created a new generation of doctoral graduands, three spin-out companies, numerous commercial engagements, a brand new MSc in cybersecurity and has been the nucleating point for 950 new jobs announced in the Belfast cybersecurity cluster.
Building on these achievements, CSIT will now progress into Phase 2 having been awarded £5 million in funding from EPSRC and Innovate UK, along with £9 million from Queen’s University. This funding will be used to establish a Global Innovation Hub for Cybersecurity and build on government, industry and academic partnerships worldwide. Through commercial engagements, licensing, competitive funding calls and European Horizon 2020 projects, CSIT aims to increase their projected levels of investment to £38 million over the next five-years. This will help support the development of research programmes, the creation of more businesses and further investment in training and development programmes for researchers working in the security industry. To support Phase 2, CSIT will look to expand their staffing numbers with the recruitment of 25 additional people across engineering, research and commercial disciplines at all levels.
