During the visit, the Minister heard how CSIT, a research institute of the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University Belfast, is advancing cyber security across key areas including secure hardware, critical national infrastructure security, and trustworthy AI. This research is helping address both national and global security challenges while supporting the development of secure and resilient digital technologies.

Sam Donaldson, Director of Perspective Economics,  presented insights from the 2025 NI Cyber Security Sector Snapshot. The report highlighted the significant economic impact of the sector, identifying over 2,750 cyber security roles in Northern Ireland, contributing approximately £260 million to the local economy, and emphasised the important role of CSIT’s Cyber-AI Hub in driving collaboration and innovation.

Professor Paul Miller led the Minister on a tour of CSIT’s state-of-the-art facilities and provided an overview of the Cyber-AI Hub and its collaborative research and development projects with NI-based cyber security companies on both AI-enabled cyber security and the security of AI.. During the tour, PhD researchers delivered lightning talks on their research projects and CSIT engineers demonstrated in-house adversarial AI defense technologies developed at the Centre.

Speaking after the visit, Professor Máire O'Neill, Director of CSIT, said:

“We were honoured to welcome Minister Lloyd to CSIT and showcase both the strength of Northern Ireland’s cyber economy and the world-class research taking place across the Centre. Visits like this allow us to directly engage with government and explore the role of academic research in supporting economic growth and opportunity.”

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For more information contact Kiera Griffin-Bennett