The University of Bristol is to work alongside other leading universities and industry partners as part of a new government initiative to position the nation as a world leader in tackling cyber threats.
The PETRAS (privacy, ethics, trust, reliability, acceptability, and security) National Centre of Excellence for IoT (Internet of Things) Systems Cybersecurity brings together the expertise of high-end specialists whose research focus will be on emerging opportunities and threats in the digital world.
Specifically, the centre will explore the use of edge computing in economy and society, and how Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies will impact on the internet and local IoT networks.
Its focus will be on enhancing productivity and cost savings across a range of sectors including healthcare, transport and construction by bringing together academics, industry and government.
Led by UCL and funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the centre builds on an earlier phase of PETRAS that since 2016, has convened 11 universities and 110 industrial and government user partners in cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Alongside Bristol are Lancaster University, University of Oxford, University of Warwick, Cardiff University, University of Edinburgh, University of Southampton, University of Surrey, Newcastle University and the University of Nottingham.
Professor Lynn Gladden, Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), said: “ The work of this new Centre is vital for the evolution of the interconnected technologies that will permeate our society in the coming years. We have to build trust and confidence in the security of these systems for them to work effectively and safely. The strength and variety of industry and academic partners involved is evidence of the strength of the PETRAS team and the importance of research and innovation in this field.”
PETRAS is based on a dynamic shared research agenda that addresses social and physical science challenges in equal measure and has worked across a broad range of Technology Readiness Levels.
It will manage a series of open academic funding calls, the first of which will be announced in summer 2019.
