The Dutch cabinet is investing millions of euros into scientific research on cybersecurity. This was announced by Minister Dijkgraaf of Education, Culture and Science. The investment is part of a total of 160.5 million euros being put into seven major research projects at Dutch universities.

Of the said amount, 21.6 million euros will go to cybersecurity, intended for a period of ten years. It concerns the Challenges in Cyber Security project. This is intended to bring together top researchers from hard science in the cybersecurity field to solve problems. The researchers will first receive the first half of the amount. After five years, an evaluation will follow and if it is positive, they will receive the second half.

The research is focused on cryptography, software and hardware, reports lead researcher Prof. Tanja Lange of Eindhoven University of Technology. It involves, for example, breaking cryptography by quantum computers and future systems for complex encryption. Software protection for vulnerable hardware, machine learning and efficient hardware architectures are also being investigated.

OCW. “Cybersecurity is often portrayed as an education problem or a lack of resources, with blame being shifted to users, system administrators or budget holders who limit system management capabilities. According to the ministry, coordinated scientific research is necessary to arrive at solutions.

Long-term investment program

The flows of money that Dijkgraaf disclosed come from agreements on long-term investment programs, known as the Gravity Program . In addition to cybersecurity, research money goes to mechanical stresses in plants, better understanding of proteins in our bodies, therapy against blindness, the chemical basis of mental disorders, crisis response and chemical storage of electricity. According to the ministry, the Netherlands ranks among the world’s scientific leaders in these fields or is on its way to doing so.

National technology strategy

Cybersecurity is also mentioned in the national technology strategy that the Council of Ministers recently agreed to. This was at the suggestion of Minister Adriaansens of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK). Entrepreneurs, researchers and the government have together listed which technologies and markets offer the greatest opportunities for the Netherlands. Investing in those technologies will strengthen (future) earning capacity. Technology should also address unwanted dependencies and societal challenges.

The ten technologies in which Dutch companies and knowledge institutions can start exploiting the most opportunities in the coming years are:

• Optics and integrated photonics
• Quantum
• Green chemical production processes
• Biotechnology focused on molecules and cells
• Imaging technology
• (opto)Mechatronics (industrial systems/machines and devices)
• Artificial intelligence (ai) and data
• Energy materials
• Semiconductors
• Cybersecurity

The ambitions for these ten technologies have been worked out separately. They also include a target on what position the Netherlands should have achieved by 2035. Such as ‘being a global leader in the development and production of integrated photonics’. The goal is also to be the EU leader in the field of manufacturing and commercialization of quantum technology.

Source: Pim van der Beek for Computable.nl