New Centre of Excellence for digital trust launched by Scottish industry leaders and academic experts

Leading experts in technology and finance have joined together to launch a new Scottish Centre of Excellence for digital trust – which will aim to make the digital world safer and more resilient.

Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) will host the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Digital Trust and Distributed Ledger Technology, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow and Fintech Scotland, and thanks to initial funding from Scottish Enterprise.

The Centre is part of a wider aim to position Scotland as a global leader in digital trust innovation, supporting a range of industries from financial services to healthcare and beyond.

As more infrastructure, data and transactions move online, digital trust technology has an increasingly important role to play in in building resilience and security, while guarding against threats like cybercrime.

By being industry-led, the Centre will look to solve real-world challenges in digital trust and distributed ledger technologies, delivering immediate benefits to the financial services sector and beyond. The team behind the project hope it will go on to support new start-up and spin-out companies, while working alongside established firms.

Based at ENU, the Centre will bring together two other leading digital trust technologies research labs at the Universities of Glasow and Edinburgh.

Developed alongside FinTech Scotland, the Centre’s plan has an initial two-year focus on delivering, innovation, actionable research and skills training to support industry led research calls around areas such as digital payments, digital assets and digital identity.

Professor Bill Buchanan from ENU’s School of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment, and Director of the Centre, said:

“Scotland has the opportunity to lead the way when it comes to digital trust technology.

“We have digitised a great deal of our work, but many aspects of privacy, security and resilience still need to be fully understood.

“Advances in computing technology will see many of our existing methods of establishing digital trust facing a range of risks, making the work of this Centre all the more significant.”

Nanik Ramchandani, CEO of the Centre, said:

“This is a significant step forward in Scotland, and will help build a solid foundation towards enhancing digital trust.

“In a world where the dark side of AI is making it impossible to distinguish between the real and not, continued innovation to strengthen trust using privacy preserving technologies is essential”.

Nicola Anderson, CEO of FinTech Scotland, said:

“The new Centre for Excellence in Digital Trust is another important tool that helps us showcase Scotland’s leadership in fintech and digital innovation.

“This initiative complements the FinTech Research and Innovation Roadmap, developing new technologies that will shape the future of finance and the wider economy.”

Derek Shaw, Director, Scaling Innovation at Scottish Enterprise, said:

“Scotland has global competitive advantages in several industries, including fintech.

“Establishing a Centre of Excellence in Digital Trust Technologies builds on the country’s strength in this area by developing an environment that encourages collaboration between industry and academia with the aim of creating new disruptive technologies and, ultimately, investment opportunities, scalable businesses and jobs.”

Professor Aggelos Kiayias, Chair in Cyber Security and Privacy at the University of Edinburgh, said:

“At the blockchain technology laboratory of the University of Edinburgh, we are excited to contribute to the establishment of the Digital Trust Centre of Excellence.

“It represents an important step in advancing secure and trustworthy technologies in Scotland and addresses pressing societal and industry challenges that are of worldwide relevance and importance.”

Professor Muhammad Imran, Head of School at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering,said: “

This initiative comes at a crucial moment, as digital trust becomes the cornerstone of our digital future. It will support our commitment to ensuring the resilience, security, and widespread adoption of transformative technologies.

“At the University of Glasgow, we will contribute our expertise to this crucial initiative, driving innovation that will shape industries and improve lives globally.”

Initially running for a two-year period, the Centre of Excellence will bring together the expertise of ENU’s Blockpass ID Lab, the Blockchain Technology Lab from the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Glasgow’s Trustworthy Connected Systems Lab.

During that time, it will aim to create a world-leading capability for knowledge exchange, innovation and skills development that translates into increased jobs, talent, company creation and economic development in Scotland.

While the Centre is based at ENU, its scope and ambition extend across the UK and beyond. It is a hub for innovation that will support sectors as diverse as finance, energy, healthcare, and public services.

The Centre’s aims align closely with the 2022 FinTech Research and Innovation Roadmap published by FinTech Scotland, which highlighted the importance of advancing technologies in digital payments, digital identity and secure digital assets, as well as the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework.

The Centre also responds to ambitions within the Scottish Blockchain Roadmap, which was published by the Digital Trust Taskforce in 2023 in response to a report highlighting a £4.3bn opportunity for Scotland through the adoption of blockchain technologies. The roadmap is focussed on generating demand-led innovation to drive adoption across Scotland’s future industries, including financial services, energy, manufacturing and health. It will see organisations work with the Centre to unlock innovation from trust technologies across Scotland.