CDT in Cyber Security for the Everyday: a multi-disciplinary perspective Lizzie Coles-Kemp and Rikke Bjerg Jensen

Since the turn of the 21^st Century, the subject of information security has experienced growing diversification both at a practice (industry and government) and at an academic level. This move towards increased diversity is reflected in the funding calls, the interests of our MSc and PhD students and in the research challenges presented by many of our key stakeholders. Whilst information security still maintains a strong information and technology protection focus, this now sits alongside a broader mission of securing people, technology and society in a digital world. This process of extending both the scope of, and the approach to, our research and teaching, whilst upholding a strong connection with our data and technology protection roots, is illustrated particularly clearly in the story of our Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Cyber Security.

This year, with our first CDT having just taken its final cohort, we were delighted to be successful in the latest round of funding for UKRI centres for doctoral training. With this new award, we are able to launch a  CDT in Cyber Security for the Everyday, with the first cohort due to start in September 2019. This is a truly multi-disciplinary initiative that brings together students from the mathematical sciences with those from the social sciences and humanities, by focusing on two main challenges:

·         Security of emerging technologies, which addresses the security research challenges presented by technological evolution.

·         Securing cyber societies, which addresses the security research challenges that emerge from increasingly connected societies.

In bringing these two challenge areas into one CDT, we are developing the ISG’s tradition of high quality research in technology and data protection as well as demonstrating our ability to lead emergent research in the securing of people, communities and society at large in a world that is becoming more connected and increasingly digital.

The success of this CDT application lay, in part, in our ability to build upon on-going, successful supervisory partnerships with colleagues from a wide range of disciplines and departments across Royal Holloway. Our previous CDT established strong connections with Computer Science, Geography, Psychology and the School of Law. At the same time, the ISG was also involved in the Leverhulme funded Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) on Freedoms and the Rights of the Individual in a Digital Age where, in addition to working with our CDT collaborators, we developed supervisory partnerships with Media Arts, Politics and International Relations and Classics. In envisioning and developing the CDT in Cyber Security for the Everyday, we combined these two supervisory networks with the broader supervisory capacity of the ISG. We did so to establish a foundation upon which a spectrum of PhD studies ranging from single-discipline studies that have an appreciation of wider disciplinary positions to the fully multi-disciplinary can be encouraged and supported. Establishing successful supervisory teams for this new CDT therefore builds on cross-departmental conversations and collaborations, as well as on the existing knowledge and experience held within the ISG.

Such a broad network produces diverse supervisory teams and challenges the way we navigate and undertake PhD supervision. From our experience with existing multi-disciplinary supervisory teams we have learned that these work best when they start from a shared and clearly expressed goal for the PhD study that is also shared by the student. This therefore also necessitates continuous conversations about disciplinary positions and methodological approaches throughout the PhD. Whilst each supervisor and the student will typically bring very different strengths, skills and knowledge to the PhD study, it is important that each contribution clearly supports the shared goal and values the different disciplinary perspectives

A multi-disciplinary PhD offers student and supervisors alike with the opportunity of a new and exciting study, but it can also be risky as there is no well-trodden path stretching out before the team. As such, supervisors must construct safe and supportive spaces in which not only students but also supervisors can experiment with new knowledge, work with different and sometimes conflicting bodies of literature and theory and explore new methods of research. Ideally, a multi-disciplinary PhD should result in a collaborative and rewarding learning experience for all involved. This is reinforced through a network of supervisory support mechanisms, such as workshops, courses and training sessions facilitated through the CDT.

In our new CDT, we are looking forward to welcoming additional colleagues into our network and establishing new supervisory teams. Not only shall we be working further on our approaches to multi-disciplinary PhD supervision but also learning from each other and our student cohorts as to what security education and training is needed for this type of multi-disciplinary programme. This is important so that the new CDT becomes a space that supports a wide spectrum of multi-disciplinarity; from single-disciplinary approaches with an appreciation for wider disciplinary positions to fully interdisciplinary PhD studies. Hence, a multi-disciplinary approach to PhD supervision, whilst not replacing the more traditional approach, extends and broadens the ways in which cyber security is researched and taught. The research challenges posed by the march of digitalisation require us all, whether student or supervisor, to reflect, respond and renew our research approaches and skills to successfully respond to the emerging cyber security research challenges enmesh themselves in everyday life.