UK-Singapore collaboration to address cyber threats

The UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Singapore’s National Research Foundation have announced the results of a joint £2.4 million research call, which will fund the projects over the next three years.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)on Cybersecurity was signed by the UK’s Cabinet Office and Singapore’s Cybersecurity Agency during Prime Minster David
Cameron’s visit to Singapore in July 2015. This joint research programme implements the joint R&D collaboration element of the MoU and has been welcomed by both governments.

The Singapore-UK joint grant call, launched in May 2015, seeks to strengthen knowledge and capabilities in cybersecurity and foster closer collaboration in cybersecurity research between the researchers of
both countries.

The grant call closed in July 2015 with a total of 22 proposals received. All submitted proposals were evaluated jointly by cybersecurity experts of both countries.  Six projects are awarded covering research areas in Intrusions, Data Analytics, Human Factors and Sector & Applications. The projects that will be funded under this programme are:

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 Behaviour-based Insecurity;

Imperial College and the National University of Singapore will work on Machine Learning, Robust Optimisation, and Verification: Creating Synergistic Capabilities in Cybersecurity 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 cybersecurity solutions for smart traffic control systems.