Press Release: Four new research institutions join PETRAS in securing the connected world

Four more research institutions join The PETRAS National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity consortium of world leading experts in securing the connected world.

With new waves of technology under ever increasing pressure from cyberattacks, PETRAS exists to ensure the UK is a more secure and prosperous place by building a significant UK capability, delivering research excellence and insights from across the UK.

PETRAS welcomes Siraj Shaikh at Coventry University, Michele Sevegnani at University of Glasgow, Nick Taylor at Northumbria University, and Kate Parsons at Tate. They join existing members UCL, Imperial College London, University of Oxford, Lancaster University, University of Warwick, University of Southampton, Newcastle University, University of Nottingham, University of Bristol, Cardiff University, University of Edinburgh and University of Surrey.

PETRAS Director, Jeremy Watson said “I am delighted to welcome the new research partners to the PETRAS consortium, and am strongly motivated to build our Centre of Excellence through aligned and synergistic collaboration between partners. Our academic community will be greatly enriched by these new members.”

PETRAS expands its consortium of research institutions through open national funding calls and through Innovate UK’s (IUK) Demonstrators programme, in which applicants are encouraged to address IoT systems research challenges, where they can enjoy benefits that include access to internal funding.

Kate Parsons, Head of Collection Management at Tate said “Tate is thrilled to be collaborating with Imperial College London and our research partners from industry, including ARM and Ordnance Survey, on Logistics 4.0: Securing High Value Goods Using Self-protecting Edge Compute. The research project aims to advance IOT technologies to protect and monitor artworks, providing unprecedented volumes of data, transit behaviours and secure wide-area real-time location control. We are enormously grateful to PETRAS for their support of this exciting and transformational research and are delighted to be joining the Centre”.

Joining as part of a successful bid to PETRAS’s 1st Strategic Research Fund, Michele Sevegnani, Computing Science Lecturer at University of Glasgow said “We are delighted to join the PETRAS consortium. We will contribute to improved security and resilience for future vehicular systems by developing new modelling and verification techniques based on digital twins and multiple design perspectives.”

Siraj Ahmed Shaikh, Professor of Systems Security at Coventry University, joins the Centre as part of IUK’s Demonstrators Programme. Siraj said: “I am delighted that Coventry University is joining PETRAS. The consortium represents a major alliance towards advancing research to secure IoT, and as such address a number of key security challenges for our ever-growing dependence on such systems. This directly aligns with the mission of the Institute of Future Transport and Cities (IFTC) at Coventry, which is working in close partnership with industry to enable manufacturing and transport sectors achieve systems security and resilience.”

PETRAS has a dedicated Business Development team who connect the public and private sectors with a network of transdisciplinary academic experts, to enable research collaborations that address social and technical issues relating to the cybersecurity of IoT devices, systems and networks.

If you are a research institution, private or public sector organisation interested in collaborating with PETRAS, please contact petras@ucl.ac.uk.

Notes to Editors

About PETRAS

• PETRAS forms part of the Securing Digital Technologies at the Periphery (SDTaP) programme funded by UKRI and its Strategic Priorities Fund
• PETRAS collaborates with the public and private sectors to ensure that technological advances in the Internet of Things (IoT), and associated systems at the Edge of the internet, are safely and securely developed and applied in business and consumer contexts.
• PETRAS is a consortium of 16 research institutions, they are UCL, Imperial College London, University of Oxford, Lancaster University, University of Warwick, University of Southampton, Newcastle University, University of Nottingham, University of Bristol, Cardiff University, University of Edinburgh and University of Surrey, Coventry University, University of Glasgow and Northumbria University and Tate.

About UK Research Innovation (UKRI) and Securing Digital Technologies at the Periphery (SDTaP)

• UKRI works in partnership with universities, research organisations, businesses, charities, and government to create the best possible environment for research and innovation to flourish. They aim to maximise the contribution of each of their component parts, working individually and collectively. They work with their many partners to benefit everyone through knowledge, talent and ideas.
• The SDTaP programme is funded by UKRI’s Strategic Priorities Fund. The programme aims to ensure that the IoT systems are safe and secure, particularly as more critical applications emerge meaning there is increased vulnerability to broader, more sophisticated cyber-threats.
• UKRI’s Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) is one of the UK’s largest, publicly funded, programmes of work to spearhead multi and inter disciplinary research and innovation.
• PETRAS expands its consortium of HEIs through open national funding calls and through Innovate UK’s Demonstrators programme, in which applicants are encouraged to address IoT systems research challenges, where they can enjoy benefits that include access to internal funding.
• PETRAS has a dedicated Business Development team who connect the public and private sectors with a network of transdisciplinary academic experts, to enable research collaborations that address social and technical issues relating to the cybersecurity of IoT devices, systems and networks.