Queen's University, Belfast: £14m boost for Centre for Secure Information Technologies

The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University is hosting a two-day summit

A centre at Queen's University, Belfast, aimed at enhancing cyber security, plans to recruit 25 extra staff after receiving £14m in funding.

The funding for the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) was announced on Thursday.

It plans to recruit 25 additional staff across engineering, research and commercial disciplines over the next three years.

CSIT is hosting a two-day world cyber security technology research summit.

It has been awarded £5m in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Innovate UK, along with £9m core funding from Queen's,

The centre said it would use the investment to drive forward its own research programmes, support the creation of more businesses and jobs, and provide skills and training for the UK cyber security industry.

The summit includes speakers from the US Department of Homeland Security and the UK Cabinet Office as well as companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Allstate and Symantec.

The centre is based at Queen's Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) in the Northern Ireland Science Park.

Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Arlene Foster has said the cyber security sector is making an increasingly important contribution to the Northern Ireland economy.

She said it supports around 900 jobs and has grown by a third within the last year.