Two UK universities have been added to the government's Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research list, taking its total number up to 19.
Northumbria University and De Montfort University, the first to be recognised from the Midlands, have been cited by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as having first-rate research capabilities.
Their strengths include improving the UK's approaches to help people better understand how to protect themselves online and developing new technologies to protect critical infrastructure like telecommunications.
Eerke Boiten, director of the CTI and professor in Cyber Security at De Montfort University (DMU) said being named on the list highlighted the universities' strong industry engagement and first-class research capabilities.
"This recognition will strongly support our future plans for national and international collaborative research in topics such as industrial control systems, human factors in security, incident response, cybercrime and privacy," he said.
"It also perfectly complements the provisional NCSC certification that DMU offers for two of its Master's degrees in Cyber Security and Cyber Technology. The ACE-CSR programme is part of delivering by Government's 1.9 billion National Cyber Security Strategy 2016-2021."
The government's 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 technology gaps.
It aims to makes collaboration between academia, business and government easier and link cutting-edge research to practical products and services. This includes developing tools to combat online fraud and cyber criminals.
"The UK has some of the best minds in the cyber security field and it's only right that we recognise those universities that can excel when it comes to carrying out world-leading research," said Margot James. "The global threat of cyber security is never far from our minds we want to ensure that our best and brightest can help shape our national cyber security strategy."
Northumbria and De Montfort join a list of 17 other institutions across the whole of the UK which have been regarded as strategic partners to the government and are producing cutting edge research in cyber security. In August 2018, the University of Kent, King's College London and the University of Cardiff were identified as having first-rate research facilities.
