The University has achieved accreditation from the government as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR).
The announcement, made by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, comes in recognition of Kent’s first-rate research in terms of both scale and impact. The University will now have the opportunity to bid for funding to develop cutting-edge research in cyber security, including at Doctoral level, as well as attend annual conferences and workshops organised by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Responding to the announcement 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 established in 2012 to focus and showcase research in this area, particularly the promotion of interdisciplinary research across different disciplines.
It currently 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 10 different schools as Associate Members. In addition to its research activities in cyber security, it also conducts a wide range of technical and interdisciplinary activity in enterprise and innovation, teaching support, and public engagement.
Kent, along 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 make sure cutting-edge research is turned into practical products and services. This includes developing tools to tackle mass marketing fraud online and better understand cyber criminals.