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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/S035362/1
Title: PETRAS 2
Principal Investigator: Watson, Professor JDM
Other Investigators:
Carr, Professor M Edwards, Professor L McAuley, Professor D
Hall, Professor Dame W Cooper OBE, Professor R Lupu, Professor EC
Rashid, Professor A Burnap, Professor P Maple, Professor C
Morisset, Dr C Luger, Professor E Perera, Dr C
Speed, Professor C Watson, Professor T De Roure, Professor D
Davies, Professor N Hailes, Professor S Cruickshank, Dr H
Moessner, Professor K O'Hara, Dr K Van Kleek, Professor M
de Montjoye, Dr Y
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
ARM Ltd BBC BT
Center for Digital Built Britain Costain Creative Space Management Ltd
Cube Controls Ltd EDF GSM Association (GSMA)
In Touch Ltd IoT Security Foundation London Legacy Development Corporation
MEVALUATE Microsoft Nexor
O2 Ordnance Survey Pinsent Masons LLP
QinetiQ Surrey and Border Partnership NHS Trust Tate
Telefonica UK TRL Ltd (Transport Research Laboratory) TUV Product Service Ltd
Department: Science, Tech, Eng and Public Policy
Organisation: UCL
Scheme: Standard Research
Starts: 01 January 2019 Ends: 30 June 2024 Value (£): 13,850,000
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Artificial Intelligence Human-Computer Interactions
Information & Knowledge Mgmt Networks & Distributed Systems
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Aerospace, Defence and Marine Communications
Healthcare Creative Industries
Energy Information Technologies
Transport Systems and Vehicles
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
18 Dec 2018 SDTaP Research Hub Interview Panel Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Rapidly developing digital technologies, together with social and business trends, are providing huge opportunities for innovation in product and service markets, and also in government processes. Technology developments drive socioeconomic and behavioural changes and vice versa, and the rate of change in these makes tracking and responding to high-speed developments a significant challenge in public and private sectors alike. Agile governance and policy-making for emerging technologies is likely to become a key theme in strategic thinking for the public and private sectors.

Particular trends that are challenging now, and will increasingly challenge society include developments in technologies on the outskirts of the internet. These include Artificial Intelligence, not just in the cloud but in Edge computing, and in Internet of Things devices and networks. Alongside and in conjunction with this ecosystem, is Distributed Ledger Technology. Together this ensemble of technologies will enable innovations that promote productivity, like peer-to-peer dynamic contracts and other decision processes, with or without human sight or intervention. However, the ensemble's autonomy, proliferation and use in critical applications, makes the potential for hacking and similar attacks very significant, with the likelihood of them growing to become an issue of strategic national importance.

To address this challenge, and to preserve the immense economic and productivity benefits that will come from the successful deployment and application of digital technologies 'at the edge', a focused initiative is needed. Ideally, this will use the UK's current platform of experience in the safe and secure application of the Internet of Things. The contributors to this platform include PETRAS partners, and several other centres of excellence around the UK.

It is therefore proposed to build an inclusive PETRAS 2 Research Centre with national strategic value, on the established and successful platform of the PETRAS Hub. This will inherit its governance and management models, which have demonstrated the ability to coordinate and convene collaboration across 11 universities and 110 industrial and government User Partners, but will importantly step up its mission and inclusivity through open research calls for new and existing academic partners. PETRAS 2 will maintain an agile and shared research agenda that views social and physical science challenges with equal measure, and covers a broad range of Technology Readiness Levels, particularly those close to market. It will operate as a virtual centre, providing a magnet for collaboration for user partners and a single expert voice for government. User partner engagement is likely to be strong following the successes of the current PETRAS programme, which has raised over £1m in cash contributions from partners during 2018.

The new PETRAS 2 'Secure Digital Technologies at the Edge' methodology will inherit the best of PETRAS, including open calls to the UK research community and a partnership-building fund that allows a responsive approach to opportunities that emerge from existing and new user and academic partnerships. PETRAS 2 will be driven by sectoral cybersecurity priorities while retaining a discovery research agenda to horizon-scan and develop understanding of new threats and opportunities. The scope of projects and the associated Innovate UK SDTaP demonstrators, spans early to late TRLs and aims to put knowledge into real user partner practice. Furthermore, the development of many early career researchers through PETRAS 2 research activities should lead to a step change in our national capability and capacity to address this highly dynamic area of socio-technical opportunity and risk.

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