The key question underpinning the "National Security through Partnership" Fellowship is: how can we promote better engagement between National Security stakeholders - policy-makers and practitioners - and academia? The project divides into two phases, with the possibility of overlap to allow early gains to be made: Exploration (months 1-4): - Through series of interviews and workshops with stakeholders in Government, Academia and (if appropriate) Industry, we will establish an understanding and a critique of the existing arrangements for National Security engagement; relevant HMG CSAs and Global Uncertainties Fellows & Principal Investigators will represent an important source of insight here, as well as such centres as Imperial's Institute for Security Science & Technology, KCL's War Studies Department, St Andrew's Centre for the Study of Terrorism & Political Violence, Durham University's Global Security Institute, UCL's Jill Dando Institute of Crime & Security Science, and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies at Queen's University Belfast. - We will gather ideas and proposals for new and better mechanisms for engagement: seeking insight from social science knowledge being developed in, for instance, Cambridge University's Centre for Science & Policy and Centre for Business Research; looking at alternative models practiced by National Security allies overseas - eg American, Dutch and German; and learning from approaches taken by researchers working other public service sectors (such as DEFRA, BIS, DECC and the Department of Health); we hope to commission a literature review conducted by an MSc student at the Aberdeen Business School, supervised by Professor Adam Ogilvie-Smith; - An interim report will be produced as the first output, at the end of this phase, for a cross-section of opinion-formers in Government and Academia (including key players in the Global Uncertainties Programme), and this audience will be represented at a Workshop that considers the findings and discusses next steps; this workshop itself will represent an early pathway to impact, building networks and establishing a community with shared interests. Piloting (months 5-12); informed by lessons & insights from Phase 1, our Placement Fellow will: - Trial at least two pilots, which seek to deliver one or more of the following benefits: o ensuring that research & training is problem-based o linking research expertise to end-users through co-design, co-production and co-delivery of research o enabling end-users to support the transformation of early-stage research into products and services o more strategic co-operation between end-users and scholars leading to aligned activities with shared goals o shared horizon-scanning activities that identify and help end users to respond to emerging challenges. - Evaluate pilots and share lessons with wider National Security networks; one option is to discuss these at a William Pitt Security Seminar at Pembroke College, Cambridge; - In a final output, review and evaluate the project and produce recommendations for "Next Steps" in a final report, to include an application - if appropriate - for follow-up funds for CSaP to support future implementation.

Cryptography is a discipline that has undergone rapid and extensive development in the last 30 years. It has become a rich academic subject in its own right, existing as a sub-discipline of theoretical computer science. It also has deep connections with areas of mathematics such as number theory and algebra. At the same time, cryptography is inherently an applied subject, underpinning the security of e-commerce, banking networks, mobile telecommunications, business-to-business collaboration on the Internet, and much more besides. This means that pragmatic, engineering aspects of cryptography are of vital importance.As the field has developed, so has it fragmented, to the point where potentially dangerous gulfs in understanding have opened up between theoreticians on the one side and practitioners on the other. Currently, few researchers are attempting to close the gaps between theory and practice in cryptography. Indeed, with only a small number of exceptions, researchers in academia largely work on theoretical topics, while practitioners are focussed on providing standards-compliant implementations.The principal aim of this Fellowship, then, is to make a systematic attempt to bridge the divide between theory and practice in cryptography, with the ultimate objectives being to create theory that is more useful and systems that are more secure. The means by which these aims will be achieved are both technical and organisational, and are grouped into three main themes:1. I will build on my previous work on globally deployed protocols such as IPsec and SSH, continuing to look for weaknesses in cryptographic specifications and implementations. I will also seek to understand how these weaknesses can be addressed in practical ways. 2. Using knowledge gained from the first activity, I will develop extensions of current theory that permit more realistic modeling of cryptographic primitives as they are used in fielded systems. 3. I will seek to engage with both the theoretical community and practitioners in an attempt to bring them back together again. This will be done by a variety of methods:* I will seek to establish a new series of workshops focussed on applied aspects of cryptography.* Through my position on the editorial board of the Journal of Cryptology, I will propose and guest-edit a special issue dedicated to applied cryptography. * I will continue to work with standardisation bodies such as ISO and the IETF.* I will work with industry through forums such as I4 and CPNI to keep practitioners informed of research developments. At the same time, I will maintain my contacts with the academic community, via collaboration, participation in the ECRYPT-II Network of Excellence, and conference attendance, bringing the needs of industry to their attention.* I will continue to engage with the wider public via magazine and press articles of the type engendered by my earlier work. This third activity will necessitate strengthening existing collaborations, developing new ones, and evangelising the general approach of reuniting theory and practice.

Broad ThemesCrime and terrorism threaten States, businesses and individuals; they increasingly exploit technology, sometimes more effectively than the security forces that oppose them. Our proposed Security Science DTC aims to promote fundamental science and research but to do so in a training environment that will provide a broader understanding of these threats; the pace at which they evolve, and the extent to which holistic responses are increasingly required if we are to contain them or to recover more rapidly from attack. We aim to prepare a future generation of security scientists better able to face these rapidly emerging new threats in crime and security. To do so this DTC will catalyse a truly interdisciplinary research effort that brings together multiple domains in security science to focus on the physical and cyber security of the State (borders and critical infrastructures, broadly construed, including financial, transport, energy, health and communication), business and the individual. Need and impact on the research landscape Science and technology have been utilized to protect against the threats outlined above, yet it is now widely accepted that security must be integrated, with a much greater awareness of the environmental operating contexts. This need has been expressed by governments (through policy papers and the creation of new bodies with interorganisational mandates such as the Serious and Organised Crime Agency), industry (through their increasing engagement with academic institutions to develop a new generation of security technologies that take into account factors such as behavioral response and ethical sensitivity) and research councils (eg. through their new 'Global Uncertainties: Security for all in a changing world' programme which cuts across all research council remits). The EPSRC is in an ideal position to invest in a national DTC where a critical mass of researchers can foster innovation and encourage and nurture an integrated systems approach that recognizes the importance of environmental context, human factors, and public policy to security solutions. This vision is based on the observation that the benefits of introducing advanced technologies into the security arena are significantly enhanced by engagement with the broader social, political and economic contexts within which those technological solutions apply. It is clear that disciplines as far apart as psychology and electronic engineering should come together in new ways to combat security threats in a holistic manner. This enhanced sensitivity to interconnectedness and multidisciplinary will lead to more effective science and encourage synergies to develop, increase knowledge transfer and facilitate engagement with end-users. Security is a challenging domain that drives adventurous research in a wide range of disciplines represented in this proposal (e.g. cryptography, radiation physics, nanotechnology). A DTC that helps secure the future supply of researchers with strong links to and appreciation of problems in the security context will help support the long term vigour of these disciplines. The DTC will also provide the UK with a hub to spark synergistic collaboration with other centres working in these areas such as the US Centres for Excellence (eg. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), University of Maryland). We further believe that this DTC in integrated security science will act as a prototype for future similar activities around the world. Ultimately, research associated with this DTC will help to position the UK as the international leader in the development of a uniquely equipped generation of security scientists, delivering innovative research to meet one of society's greatest challenges.

The physical infrastructure that facilitates the transport of people, freight, waste and utility services, and thus provides the essential support to civilised life, is under threat from numerous sources: deterioration through (often extreme) ageing, adverse ground chemistry, surface loading or stress relief due to open-cut interventions; severely increased demand; ever changing (different, or altered) demands; terrorism; the effects of climate change; funding constraints and severe natural hazards (extreme weather events, earthquakes, landslides, etc.). Such vulnerability, and the need for resilience in the face of such threats, is recognised widely - see Building Britain's Future17 and the ICE's State of The Nation Report: Defending Critical Infrastructure18 (both 2009), and the aims of the new Infrastructure UK delivery body18. This feasibility study seeks to explore radically different ways of conceptualising, designing, constructing, maintaining, managing, adapting and valuing the physical infrastructure to make it resilient no matter which threats are manifested or how the future develops. In this context resilience refers to the symbiosis existing between infrastructure, management systems and end users.Recent years have witnessed a shift to a more transdisciplinary concept of resilience that integrates the physical (both built and natural) and socio-political aspects of resilience. This change has been crucial because the socio-political and managerial aspects are arguably as important to the attainment of resilience as the physical aspects; resilient engineering also demands a more resilient infrastructural context with regard to the professions and the structures and processes which govern engineering activity.This proposal explores the engineering and social dimensions of resilience research needed to bring about radical changes in thinking and practice for an assured future in the face of multiple challenges. The following represent two core resilience themes at the interface of engineering, spatial planning and social science, from which feasibility studies to address key challenges will emerge via a series of workshops. The tangible manifestation lies in Local Area Agreements - a set of 32 centrally-approved and locally-implemented performance indicators linking engineered solutions, mechanisms for adoption, behavioural adaptation and education.1. Bespoke local utility infrastructures for resilient communities2. The role of transport in societal resilienceThe research team draws from five major research groups at the University of Birmingham, all of whom are addressing core themes of infrastructure and resilience. The team is supported by innovative thinkers drawn from the stakeholder community, both practitioners and policy makers. The primary themes to be studied are the creation of local utility infrastructures and transport to deliver resilience, recognising the UK shift towards enhancing innovation in the public/private sectors and local decision-making and delivery. Our team will deepen trans-disciplinary research by overcoming the tension that exists between the engineering focus on solutions and the social scientists concern with problems by developing realistic solutions to local problems. This requires exploration of the interface between four communities of practice: engineering and physical sciences, social sciences, private firms and local government. The intention is to identify solutions that reduce costs and enhance delivery, but also to identify new projects that have the potential to create innovative products that have commercial value.