Dr. Paul Miller:

I will respond to the Senator's question about what happened in Belfast and about CSIT. It was founded in 2009 through a combination of funding from UK Research and Innovation, UKRI, which is equivalent to SFI; and Invest Northern Ireland, which is equivalent to Enterprise Ireland. There was also some industry funding. It was clear from the beginning that Invest Northern Ireland wanted to use CSIT as an vehicle for attracting FDI around cybersecurity. To help us to do that, and to incubate a Northern Ireland cybersecurity cluster, they funded an engineering group. That was in addition to funding academics and researchers and so on. They also funded a dedicated commercial team. The commercial team was to help us to engage with industry, both local and multinational. The engineering team can also help us to translate our research higher up, at technology readiness level, TRL, so companies can take that to market. When CSIT started in 2009 there were no cybersecurity jobs in Belfast. There are now 2,700. There are 124 companies and we are the largest location for US-based FDI in cybersecurity. I think the same thing can happen in the South with the cybercampus. We have been making links with various academic groups in the South.

They know our model very well. If a combination of funding from, say, SFI, Enterprise Ireland and industry could be brought together, the same thing could essentially be created. There is a very good ecosystem already. There are many companies around both Cork and Dublin. Obviously, there are other models to look at, but, certainly, we want to be part of that as a sort of island cybersecurity capability. We are very keen to work with colleagues to help establish that. It would not take a lot of effort, but what is key is that something like Enterprise Ireland does invest in an engineering team and commercial team and helps them engage with local companies and with FDI and multinational companies. That is maybe some context.