Scottish university awarded Centre of Excellence status for cyber research

A specialist research group from the University of Strathclyde has secured Academic Centre of Excellence status from the UK Government.

StrathCyber, a cyber security research group at the Glasgow-based institution, has been rewarded the title for its research quality and impact.

Strathclyde is now one of just 21 UK universities and only the second in Scotland to gain the Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Centre (ACE-CSR) designation from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

In 2017, the University of Edinburgh was the first to be recognised with the status north of the border. 

StrathCyber's research focuses on resilience and digital harms, with expertise in human factors, infrastructure security, privacy and regulation, system security, and formal methods.

Professor Wendy Moncur, of StrathCyber, will be part of the new centre's leadership team, which will be headed by Dr Daniel Thomas of Strathclyde's department of comptuer and information sciences. Moncur said: “At StrathCyber, we aim to build resilience for future societies in cybersecurity contexts. This goes beyond mere ‘tech’ solutions. We take problem-driven approaches, working to understand people and organisations - their behaviours, experiences, and challenges online - in the face of current and future threats to identity, privacy, and security.

“We strive to design solutions that enable legitimate citizens and organisations to operate safely and securely online to achieve their desired goals and to protect them from online harms. It’s terrific news that our research has been recognised.”

Chris Ensor, deputy director of cyber growth with NCSC, added: “These recognitions are a testament to the dedication of academics, support staff and senior management who have ensured that cyber security remains high on the university’s agenda. And they demonstrate that the UK has a growing number of world-class universities carrying out cutting-edge research into all areas of cyber security. We very much look forward to working with them over the coming years to tackle the most difficult cyber security challenges.”