In 2016, the work of the Northumbria Cyber Security Research Group (CSRG) was given strong strategic support, with the inclusion of cybersecurity as a core pillar of the University’s multidisciplinary research strategy. Further investment has been targeted in the wake of Northumbria’s success in REF2021. The university made an investment of £7m in a new state-of-the-art computing and information sciences ‘Smart Building’, and plans are to use this ‘Living Lab’ to support the CIS research agenda with cybersecurity recognised as a key focus. The Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) building won the Lord Mayor’s Award in 2020. A current strategic aim is to grow the size of CSRG by attracting new staff, growing impact by engaging in longer-term partnerships with business and government and sharing expertise in order to improve the capacity of CSRG members to bid for future funding. This development ties in with Northumbria’s membership of the £40m Institute of Coding, a world-class consortium of 25 universities.

At the same time, the 2023 research investment in Psychology (eye tracking and human behaviour laboratories) has extended the capability of the human-centred cybersecurity team. Research capability has been enhanced by the addition or promotion of staff in both CIS and Psychology Departments. Jahankhani took up the role as Head of Cybersecurity in our London Campus in 2016, Branley Bell was appointed to lead the Psychology and Communications Technology Lab in 2023 and Issac was appointed the Head of Subject (Networks and Cyber Security) in 2022.

In addition to the existing Crick and Oswald HPC (High-Performance Computing) computer cluster, the university has bought a multi-million HPC cluster and storage facilities for the next five-year period, which will support cybersecurity research, among other research. In 2024, the University has teamed up with global digital technology providers, Lenovo and Logicalis, to deliver the new Higgs high-performance computing (HPC) cluster to put Northumbria at the forefront of technological innovation and further boost research excellence. The name of the cluster was inspired by Professor Peter Higgs, who was born in Newcastle, and whose revolutionary work on the Higgs boson particle changed our understanding of what helps bind the universe together. The Higgs cluster will include cutting-edge Lenovo HPC hardware to deal with advanced workloads at high speeds, such as the complex calculations, simulations and modelling carried out by research teams at Northumbria. See the university news here.

Northumbria University has its MSc course in Cyber Security fully certified by the NCSC, a part of GCHQ. As a recognition of our cyber capability, Northumbria University won the ‘Innovator of the Year’ award in Dynamites 2020, organised by Dynamo North East and was shortlisted as a finalist in ‘Excellence in Cybersecurity’ for E&T Innovation Awards 2020, organised by IET, UK – both recognising the work on ‘Intelligent botnet detection’. Northumbria was also shortlisted as a finalist for ‘The Cyber University of the Year 2023’ in the National Cyber Awards 2023, backed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, recognising the contribution we make to cyber security