The application of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) for the continuation of the Research Training Group (RTG) “North-Rhine Westphalian Experts in Research on Digitization”, NERD for short, was successful: NERD II will be funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for 3.5 years starting in February 2022 with a sum of around 2.5 million euros. In addition to the RUB as organizer, the universities involved are FH Münster, WWU Münster, University of Paderborn, RWTH Aachen and the University of Wuppertal.

The aim of the RTG is to promote young scientists in IT security at universities and colleges in North-Rhine Westphalia by means of cross-location doctorates in cooperative research tandems. In addition to providing excellent training for young researchers, the focus is also on networking the young scientists.

The tandems each consist of two people from different universities who are doing their doctorate on a superordinate topic from the research area of Human Centered Systems Security. Each tandem is accompanied by two PhD supervisors – the Principal Investigators tandem.

Five research projects are on the schedule for NERD II:

• • MedMax Preparing Hospital Environments für Future Cyber Incidents
  • MoVi SecAnalyse Moderner Videokonferenzsysteme und deren Security
  • SCOUT Sicher Online Unterwegs – Interaktive Lernangebote für Schule und Alltag
  • SEANSichere E-Mail für alle Nutzer*innen
  • SES Strong E-Mail Security

NERD II is the continuation of RTG NERD, which was opened in March 2018 to further develop IT security research in NRW and marks the first major project of the Faculty of Computer Science, which was founded on October 01, 2021.