The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Abertay University to attract cyber security firms to Dundee
Dr Natalie Coull, head of the division of cyber security at Abertay University, reveals plans to create a cyberquarter
Q.
What are the plans and ambitions for the cyberquarter?
A. The cyberquarter will place Dundee at the heart of Scotland’s cyber security industry, at a time when there is a major shortage in the sector.
The project will bring together academic researchers with established companies to work on cyber security challenges. This will lead to the creation of new products and services, making businesses and citizens more resilient. It will also offer real-world experience for Abertay students and, offer companies access to a talent pipeline of graduates. Based on Abertay’s campus, the cyberquarter will house a physical space for collaboration
and experimentation using digital tools and technologies.
It will also have a secure cloud computing infrastructure to enable online teaching and learning and digital provision of R&D and knowledge exchange activities.
Through the success of the Dundee videogames cluster, we have already seen what can happen when Abertay’s academic expertise and the talent of our graduates is mixed with industry collaboration and enterprise support. We believe similar success can be created for the city’s cyber sector.
Q.
Now that the Tay Cities Deal has been approved what is the timescale for the project?
We expect work on the physical base for the cyberquarter to get under
way in spring/summer 2021, subject to final approvals linked to the Tay Cities Region Deal. We aim for doors to open to businesses, academic researchers and students from Easter 2022. Our project team will of course continue to monitor the pandemic and assess any impact that national restrictions may have on the delivery timeline.
Q.
Can you put a number on the potential jobs this could create for Dundee?
The cyberquarter has significant potential for job creation in Dundee. Historically, Scotland has suffered from a cybersecurity talent ‘brain drain’, which has seen many of our best graduates go to work elsewhere in the UK or abroad.
We believe the cyberquarter can provide a strong nucleus
around which business growth can flourish in Dundee, with the potential for the creation of new jobs and start-up companies. While the cyberquarter aims to grow jobs in the tech sector, we also expect nontech businesses to benefit by becoming more cyber resilient and developing new products and services that can be improved and tested by working with Abertay’s academic staff and students.
Q. What will be the value of the Pump Priming Fund and how will that work? The cyberquarter Pump Priming Fund will help develop new cyber products, services and education programmes.
More details of goals for the fund and how it will work will be announced as the project moves forward.
Q. Thinking forward to five or 10 years, what impact do you expect the cyberquarter to have made?
I believe that the cyberquarter can provide the foundations for Dundee becoming a beacon for the Scottish cybersecurity sector. Abertay is putting significant investment into this project, which is designed to spark inclusive growth to benefit the lives of people from the local area.
I’m confident we will see tangible results as the cyberquarter becomes established.
It is an exciting moment for Scotland’s cyber sector and now is the time for companies and organisations seeking to enhance their cyber security practices to come forward to collaborate with cyberquarter project.