Csit 2

From the outset, CSIT's vision has been to establish a Global Innovation Hub for Cyber Security in order to promote growth in this strategically important sector of the UK economy. There have been major achievements in the past five years during CSIT's Phase 1. The Centre has grown to over 80 people and is now one of the largest academic centres of its type internationally, and is increasingly recognised as a leader in cyber security technology research. CSIT has created a unique 'Open Innovation' model with Industry and Government that is successfully 'bridging the gap' to economic impact. CSIT has numerous International partnerships and research links including several FP7 and Horizon 2020 collaborative research projects. CSIT has spun-out 3 new ventures, supported numerous start-ups and SMEs scale and nucleated the emergence of a new cyber security cluster in Belfast (Over 900 new jobs announced in the last 5 years). CSIT has delivered against Phase 1 and commits to scale activity and impact, raising the bar on innovation and growth across the UK. The vision and strategy for Phase 2 can be summarised by, 'continuing to establish a global innovation hub for cyber security, raising the bar on growth'. At the heart of this strategy CSIT will not lose focus on the Phase 1 innovation hub model (accelerating new value creation, new venture creation and building capacity), as this is the engine from which increased and future translation is possible. CSIT's plan will increase inputs to this growth engine by feeding the innovation hub with partner innovators as well as CSIT's own innovation. CSIT will also extend activities to further supply skills, training and people to the UK cyber security industry. CSIT's plan will also increase outputs from the growth engine by formalising a Cyber PreAccelerator Programme. CSIT will also increase scale-up support for identified high growth companies and provide leadership for the cyber security cluster that emerged from, and has been nucleated by CSIT. In CSIT Phase 2 Research will be developed under the theme "Securing our Digital Tomorrow" creating the new technologies needed for the seamless integration of electronic security into future Smart Cities and the Internet of Things (IoT). Research Excellence will continue to be a focus within CSIT. CSIT Innovation and IP will be developed through various Innovation Programmes, some of which will be core funded and some of which will be competitively won externally with collaborative partners. CSIT has world-leading research expertise in a wide range of security research areas. With this expertise, and through longer-term speculative PhD research, CSIT will address the security requirements of future Smart City systems. However, from previous experience, CSIT realises resources should not be spread too thinly on such a vast range of research topics. Therefore, CSIT has chosen to select three research programmes, it believes to be the most exciting and innovative, with the most potential for commercial exploitation. Dedicated teams of researchers, PhD students and engineers will drive the development of these programmes which will be reviewed annually in conjunction with our industry partners and senior academic board members. The selected Research and Innovation Programme Themes identified at the outset are: Secure Ubiquitous Networking, Device Authentication and Security Analytics and Autonomous Sensor Security. Cyber security is still an emerging discipline but one that is growing rapidly. This is presenting exciting opportunities for research, new business and economic impact. CSIT is in a strong position to make further and significant contributions in all of these aspects and help position the UK in terms of international research reputation as well as scaling economic growth.