Indian and UK institutions unite to strengthen cybersecurity education in India
By: Communications
A UK-India partnership aiming to train 100 faculty members on advanced cybersecurity topics will focus particularly on female staff in tier-2 cities.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and the British Asian Trust India, with support from BT Group in India, have launched a groundbreaking initiative to boost cybersecurity education for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) faculty across India.
Prof Gerard Parr, Professor of Computing Sciences at the University of Easy Anglia (UEA), said: “This new phase of the UK-India Future Networks Initiative marks a major step forward in our collaboration.
“For the first time, we’re directly engaging STEM faculty across India with advanced cybersecurity training that blends academic rigour with real-world relevance.
“What’s especially exciting is the focus on empowering educators, particularly women in tier-2 cities, to become catalysts for change in their institutions and communities. By building this foundation, we’re helping to shape a more inclusive and resilient digital future for both India and the UK.”
This collaborative effort is part of a wider UK-India partnership under the UK-India Future Networks Initiative (UKI-FNI), supported by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The new programme, titled Empowering STEM Faculty through Cybersecurity Faculty Development Programme (FDP), aims to equip over 100 faculty members with advanced cybersecurity knowledge and practical skills.
Through this initial collaboration, the IISc and British Asian Trust India aim to:
- Train over 100 faculty members on advanced cybersecurity topics. It is hoped they in turn will act as ambassadors and will pass on their newfound knowledge to others.
- Create a knowledge-sharing platform to foster collaboration and sustainable development.
- Enable faculty to design new courses, conduct impactful research, and contribute to building a skilled cybersecurity workforce in India.
“This capacity building effort will draw from and add to the already strong collaboration between UK and Indian partners on the Future Networks Initiative, and drive safer digital inclusion,” said Prof Rajesh Sundaresan, Dean, Division of Electrical, Electronics, and Computer Sciences (EECS) at IISc.
Speaking on this important initiative, Bharath Visweswariah, Executive Director, the British Asian Trust India stated: "Our partnership with IISc and the UK-India Future Networks Initiative brings together the best of academic excellence and international collaboration. By strengthening faculty expertise in future-ready telecom areas like cybersecurity, we’re helping build an ecosystem of educators who can prepare India’s youth for tomorrow’s digital economy."
This partnership marks a significant step towards a secure and resilient digital future for India by promoting cybersecurity research, teaching, and workforce development.
The programme will cover a number of areas including cybersecurity frameworks and enterprise risk; network forensics and traffic analysis; malware analysis and memory forensics. It will also expose faculty to niche areas such as Telecom/IoT/operational technology (OT) systems security.
“I am particularly delighted that through our strong collaboration with IISc, we have helped facilitate this link with BT Group in India and the British Asian India Foundation in a subject domain that is extremely important to the Digital Economy of India and, indeed, the UK,” said Prof Gerard Parr, Lead of the UK-India Future Networks Initiative. “The UKI-FNI Project will provide feedback, advice and mentorship from our partners, specifically, University College London and the University of East Anglia, together with colleagues in Kings College London, University of Surrey and University of Southampton”
Future phases of the initiative are aimed at engaging more faculty members and rolling out the training to other regions across India.
The training will help educators integrate cutting-edge cybersecurity concepts into their teaching and research, ultimately strengthening India’s academic and workforce capabilities in this critical field.
Special emphasis will be placed on supporting women faculty from tier-2 cities, helping to bridge regional and gender gaps in access to high-quality technical education. Participants will gain expertise in areas such as network forensics, malware analysis, and security for Telecom, IoT, and operational technology systems.
Through this partnership, IISc and the British Asian Trust India aim to foster a sustainable knowledge-sharing ecosystem, enabling faculty to design new courses, conduct impactful research, and mentor future cybersecurity professionals.