The University of Kent has achieved accreditation from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR). Kent can now bid for funding to develop research in cyber security, including at Doctoral level, as well as attend annual conferences and workshops organised by the UK official National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Shujun Li, Professor of Cyber Security and Director of the Kent Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Cyber Security (KirCCS) at the University of Kent, said: ‘We are excited to be given the ACE-CSR status as an acknowledgement of the excellent research in cyber security. Our research is truly interdisciplinary drawing on the expertise of colleagues from computer science and engineering as well as wider disciplines such as psychology, law, business and sociology. Our ambition is to have one of the largest and most productive cyber security research centres in the UK by 2022 as well as helping to grow the next-generation cyber security researchers.’
The Kent Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Cyber Security (KirCCS) was set up in 2012, particularly for promotion of interdisciplinary research across disciplines. It has 14 academics from the Universities’ School of Computing and the School of Engineering and Digital Arts as core members, with a further 30 academics from ten schools as Associate Members. In addition to its research activities in cyber security, it also conducts technical and interdisciplinary activity in enterprise and innovation, teaching support, and public engagement.
Kent, with King’s College London and Cardiff University, joins 14 other institutions in a scheme forming part of the Government’s National Cyber Security Strategy, which aims to make the UK the safest place to be online and also help to support the country’s digital economy. The scheme aims to create a better understanding of the strength of the UK’s academic capability in cyber security and identify areas where there are research opportunities or technical gaps. It makes collaboration between academia, business and government easier, and helps turn research into practical products and services; such as tools to tackle mass marketing fraud online and better understand cyber criminals.
