Knowledge Transfer Opportunities in Cyber Security with Strathclyde 

Open call for expressions of interest 

Universities, as epicentres of cutting-edge research and development, offer a wealth of resources to address complex industry challenges, including cyber security, and to catalyse growth. University of Strathclyde is at the forefront of industry driven research in cyber security and provide trained cyber security manpower to fulfil the cyber security needs of industry by offering specialised MSc programmes [1,2]. Furthermore, University of Strathclyde leverage several structures for forming partnerships with industry notably Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. 

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) allows a dedicated engineer to work in a company for 12-36 months on a project implementing innovative business solutions with support by the university, on a match funding basis. This partnership is supported by the West of Scotland KTP centre, with 500 KTPs securing over £75 million in funding and a near 100% success rate, supports this interaction. They have the largest portfolio of KTPs in the UK [3]. Beyond having a dedicated engineer, the KTP comes with dedicated time from experienced cyber security researchers and knowledge exchange professionals. 

The cyber security research an innovation is spearheaded by an interdisciplinary cyber security group, StrathCyber [4] which is based the Department of Computer and Information Sciences but with members spanning the faculties of Science, Engineering, Law and the Business School. StratCyber is a Centre for Excellence in Cyber Security Research recognised by National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). This broad basis of cyber security expertise allows us to respond to both human and technical problems in cyber security. There are also six industrial-facing clusters, notably the cluster in Industrial AI [5], which can draw from industry-minded researchers across the university seeking the latest problems of impact particularly with an emphasis on AI. 

Concretely, for an enterprise to draw from KTP funding and cyber security expertise at Strathclyde, a tentative problem area should be identified. We mention below some interests of selected researchers forming a representative sample of some of the expertise in StrathCyber: 

Ali Farooq: looking for companies interested in improving security and privacy practices of their employees, human-technology interactions, digital wellbeing, and Technostress identification and mitigation strategies. 

Ross Horne: with technical expertise in cryptographic protocols, security policies, vulnerability detection and prevention, FinTech, digital wallets, smartcards, etc. 

Pejman Saeghe: with expertise in dark patterns and privacy in VR, XR, GenAI, and related emerging technologies involving human-computer interaction. 

Sotirios Terzis: with experience in knowledge-exchange regarding distributed ledger applications, and trust management combining technical and human aspects. 

Enterprises with cyber security innovation needs interested in scoping a KTP with Strathclyde should either reach out directly to these researchers or place an expression of general interest to Ross Horne (ross.horne@strath.ac.uk). General expression of interest would be served via StrathCyber and the Industrial AI cluster to best match expertise with problems. An informal email suffices. 

Cyber security companies may also be interested in the NCSC-certified MSc Cyber Security (Graduate Apprenticeship) at Strathclyde [2]. The graduate apprenticeship (GA) MSc is an 18-month programme that enables organisations to upskill their employees with minimal time away from the workplace and funding provided by the Scottish Funding Council and the Student Awards Agency Scotland. Expressions of interest related to the GA MSc program should go to Sotirios Terzis (cis-cyber@strath.ac.uk). 

[1] MSc in Cyber Security: https://www.strath.ac.uk/courses/postgraduatetaught/msccybersecurity/ 

[2] MSc Cyber Security (Graduate Apprenticeship): 

https://www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/apprenticeshipdegreesatstrathclyde/cybersecurity/ 

[3] West of Scotland KTP Centre: 

https://www.ktpws.org.uk/ 

[4] Strathclyde Cyber Security Group (StrathCyber): 

https://www.strath.ac.uk/science/computerinformationsciences/strathcyber/ 

[5] Industrial AI: 

https://www.strath.ac.uk/workwithus/technologyinnovationzone/industrialinformatics/