LINCS Doctoral Training Programme

Since 2015, the Leverhulme Doctoral Training Scheme has underpinned the Interdisciplinary Network on Cybersecurity and Society (LINCS) at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).

LINCS builds on existing interdisciplinary work between the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) in the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EEECS) and the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice (MIGPSJ) to create a lasting bridge between two of the University’s four Global Research Institutes established as flagships of interdisciplinary excellence. LINCS opens up new avenues of enquiry, allowing researchers to develop new collaborations and offer interdisciplinary support to its Leverhulme Doctoral Scholars.

Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Algorithmic Solutions (LINAS)

The LINAS Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) seeks to develop a cohort of Doctoral Scholars who can address the implications of massive-scale data processing, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for both the actual operation of algorithmically driven public decision-making in wider society, and within science and engineering.

Together the rapidly evolving approaches to data make up what have been termed ‘enigmatic technologies’, where authority is concealed behind algorithms. Within the social science domain, algorithmically driven public decision-making, challenges the role of human agency and politics, human rights law and principles of transparency and accountability. For science and engineering, there is a challenge to the traditional scientific governing principles of transparent working and reproducibility. 

LINAS brings together legal scholars, social scientists, physical scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers to develop a distinctive cohort of doctoral students working across the boundaries of their own disciplines. Our ambition is to support the development of integrated, effective, scientifically rigorous and socially responsible algorithmic solutions.

It is hosted by The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice in collaboration with the Schools of Law, Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics, History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics and Social Sciences, Education and Social Work.