Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security at Royal Holloway: Renewal of the CS-CDT at RHUL

Royal Holloway has been producing PhDs in cyber security and related areas for over 30 years, the last 20 of which have been under the auspices of the Information Security Group. Since 2013, RHUL has hosted one of the EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security, with 30 students currently enrolled. In the three years since its establishment, the CDT has made a sustained and successful effort to recruit a strong cohort of students from a diverse range of backgrounds. It has given those students a broad grounding in cyber security in preparation for research and accelerated them into the phase of formal PhD research studies. We have established effective governance structures that ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the CDT without losing sight of long-term strategic objectives. We have engaged with business to enhance the training programme and to shape the CDT research portfolio. Research outputs from CDT students are frequently featured in top research conferences, with some specifically identified impacts in the real world. Feedback from our external partners in industry and government demonstrates the great value of the CDT to them.

The strategic objectives of our CDT in Cyber Security are: to promote research in cyber security that is original, significant, and of international excellence; to encourage cyber security research that is responsive to the needs of society, both nationally and globally, particularly with regard to interdisciplinary working; to develop a cohort of researchers with a broad understanding of cyber security and an appreciation of the increasingly important interplay between theoretical, technical and human factors, as well as research skills; to seek new and develop existing relationships with the cyber security industry, in order to cultivate PhD graduates with the right skills to address the UK's future cyber security challenges; to engage with stakeholders in the cyber security industry, and society at large, in order to promote the work of the CDT and to inform the future research agenda; and to establish a doctoral training environment that will continue to meet the other strategic objectives beyond the lifetime of the funded CDT.

In its new phase, our CDT in Cyber Security will recruit three further annual cohorts, starting in September 2016. Royal Holloway remains the best place to host one of the CDTs in Cyber Security, given our track record, our capacity, organisation and culture, and our close relationships with the cyber security industry. The CDT has not only greatly enhanced the research environment and business engagement at the university, but also cultivated students who truly have the potential to become leaders in their fields.

The most significant impact of the renewal of Royal Holloway's CDT in Cyber Security will be the production of at least 30 further PhD-level graduates. In view of the strong industry involvement in both the taught and research elements of the programme, CDT graduates are "industry-ready": through industry placements, they have exposure to real-world cyber security problems and working environments; because of the breadth of our taught programme, they gain exposure to cyber security in all its forms; through involvement of our industrial partners at all stages of the programme, the students are regularly exposed to the language and culture of industry. At the same time, they will continue to benefit from generic skills training, equipping them with a broad set of skills that will be of use in their subsequent workplaces (whether in academia, industry or government). They will also engage in PhD-level research projects that will lead to them developing deep topic-specific knowledge as well as general analytical skills.

One of the longer-term impacts of CDT research, expressed directly through research outputs, is to provide mechanisms that help to enhance confidence and trust in the on-line society for ordinary citizens, leading in turn to quality of life enhancement. CDT research has the potential of directly impacting the security of deployed system, for example helping to make the Internet a more secure place to do business. Moreover the work on the socio-technical dimensions of security and privacy also gives us the means to influence government policy to the betterment of society at large. Through the training component of the CDT, and subsequent engagement with industry, our PhD students are exposed to the widest set of cyber security issues and forced to think beyond the technical boundaries of their research. In this way, our CDT is training a generation of cyber security researchers who are equipped - philosophically as well as technically - to cope with whatever cyber security threats the future may bring. The programme equip students with skills that will enable them to understand, represent and solve complex engineering questions, skills that will have an impact in UK industry and academic long beyond the lifetime of the CDT.