UK and Singapore announce $5.1m joint research programme on cyber security
The governments of Singapore and the UK are collaborating to fight cyber crime as part of a research programme worth $5.1m.
The UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) – the main government agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences – and Singapore’s National Research Foundation – a department within the Prime Minister’s Office which funds strategic initiatives and builds up R&D capabilities, yesterday announced six joint research projects to be carried out at universities in both countries.
The projects were chosen out of 22 proposals which were evaluated jointly by cyber security experts of both countries.
The announcement follows Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cyber security signed by the UK’s Cabinet Office and Singapore’s Cybersecurity Agency during British prime minster David Cameron’s visit to Singapore in July 2015.
The research programme implements the joint R&D collaboration element of the MoU.
Minister for the UK Cabinet Office Matt Hancock, said: “The research partnership between British and Singaporean universities will help both of our countries keep pace with the evolving cyber threat.
“I have no doubt that these projects will produce ground-breaking cyber security research and help protect us from threats online.”
The following projects will be funded by the joint programme:
The University of Oxford and the National University of Singapore will work on security and privacy in smart grid systems: countermeasure and formal verification.
The University of Kent will work with the National University of Singapore on vulnerability discovery using abduction and interpolation.
The University of Surrey and Singapore Management University will work on computational modelling and automatic non-intrusive detection of human behavior-based insecurity.
London’s Imperial College and the National University of Singapore will work on machine learning, robust optimisation, and verification – creating synergistic capabilities in cyber security research.
Imperial College and Singapore University of Technology and Design will work on security by design for interconnected critical infrastructures.
The University of Southampton and Nanyang Technological University will develop cyber security solutions for smart traffic control systems.
The UK recently announced a doubling of investment to protect Britain from cyber attack and develop sovereign capabilities in cyberspace, totaling £1.9 billion over five years. Combined with spending on core cyber capabilities, this will bring the UK government’s total cyber spending to more than £3.2 billion.
Singapore launched a new Cyber Security Agency (CSA) in April 2015 and plans to double its current staff of 100.
About Winnie Agbonlahor
Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.
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