Germany's IT Security Region: Federal Government assigns more than 20 Million Euro for Research in the Software-Cluster

Darmstadt/Karlsruhe/Saarbrücken–The German expertise in applied IT security research is concentrated in the Software-Cluster around Saarbrücken, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Darmstadt and Walldorf – this was impressively confirmed by grants of more than 20 million Euro that were announced by the Federal Government during CeBIT fair. This includes on the one hand all three Cyber Security Centers, which were assigned by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to the Technical University of Darmstadt, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Saarland University. Furthermore, partners of the Software-Cluster achieved double success in the „Trusted Cloud Computing" competition organized by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

Security in the Web is one of the substantial requirements in order to make it possible for citizens, enterprises and authorities to accept and fully use the opportunities of digitalization. Therefore, the German Federal Government wants to advance IT security research. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) establishes three centers of expertise for IT security and supports these with 17 million Euro. As announced during the opening of CeBIT 2011, all three centers will be established within the region of the Software-Cluster.

In the competition the following universities could convince the jury of their concept: the Technical University of Darmstadt with the project "European Center for Security and Privacy by Design" (EC-SPRIDE) together with the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology Darmstadt (Fraunhofer SIT), the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) with the "Center of expertise for applied security technology" (KASTEL) as well as Saarland University with the „Center for IT Security, Privacy and Accountability" (CISPA). All of these universities and institutions are partners of the Software-Cluster which spans around the centers of software development Darmstadt, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken and Walldorf. For the aim of jointly developing the fundamentals of the enterprise software of tomorrow, 37 partners from the fields of business and academia were distinguished in the Leading-Edge Cluster competition supported by the Federal Government in 2010.

„The placement of all the three Cyber Security Centers of the Federal Government within the region and the partners of the Software-Cluster emphasizes the leading position of the Cluster in the field of IT security research", says Prof. Dr. Johannes Buchmann, Director of the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) and member of the strategy board of the Software-Cluster. „Through the bundling of different research projects in the Software-Cluster synergies are developed for the benefit of enterprises, authorities and citizens in the whole of Germany".

Partners of the Software-Cluster achieved further success in the competition "Secure Cloud Computing for SMEs and the public sector - Trusted Cloud", which is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The winners were also announced at CeBIT on 1st of March. In the next three years the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) will promote the development and testing of innovative, secure and law-abiding Cloud solutions with the program "Trusted Cloud" with a volume of around 50 million Euros. Out of 16 submissions 12 projects were selected, from which two were assigned to partners of the Software-Cluster: the consortium of „Peer Energy Cloud" includes such important partners of the Software-Cluster as the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and SEEBURGER AG. The project „Peer Energy Cloud" is concerned with the development of solutions for an intelligent distribution and utilization of renewable energies.

Holger Kirchner, director of the research area of SEEBURGER AG explains: "We are pleased to be prominent vendors of products and solutions for the integration of enterprise software and thereby further strengthen the Software-Cluster. The success and acceptance of Cloud Computing and services based on it depend substantially on confidence in their security. The existing IT security competence in the Software-Cluster benefits directly the success of enterprise software in the Cluster region, both in Germany and worldwide."

With Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology Darmstadt (Fraunhofer SIT) another partner of the Software-Cluster is participating in the project „CloudCycle", which also received a grant. This project creates an Open-Source-Platform, which supports the entire life cycle of Cloud services.

Through the funding of the Cyber Security Centers and the Trusted-Cloud-Projects more than 20 million Euro will go to the region of the Software-Cluster for IT security projects in the coming years.

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