Professor Tim Watson FBCS FIET is the Programme Director for our Defence and Security Programme. Appointed in January 2022, Tim is also a Professor of Cyber Security and the Director of the Cyber Security Centre at Loughborough University. With more than thirty years’ experience working with government, industry and in academia, he has been involved with a wide range of programmes, several high-profile projects and has acted as a consultant for some of the largest telecoms, power and transport companies. Tim is an adviser to various parts of the UK government and to several professional and standards bodies.

Tim’s research includes EU-funded projects on combating cyber crime, UK MoD research into automated defence, insider threat and secure remote working, and UKRI-funded research, focusing on the protection of critical national infrastructure against cyber-attack. In PETRAS he is the Chair of the Research Excellence Board.