Research security and mid-career skills development – why we need to build talent and trust

This blog was kindly authored by Professor Dame Karen Holford DBE FREng, Chief Executive and Vice-Chancellor, Cranfield University

None of us can have escaped the daily headlines of rising geopolitical tensions and escalating conflict in the Middle East. Regionally, these tensions create catastrophic humanitarian crises, widespread displacement, and significant political volatility. Worldwide, they are causing severe global economic disruption, including spiking oil prices, damaged shipping routes, and supply chain bottlenecks.  In the UK, whilst our thoughts are with the thousands of people who are living in terror, they also turn to our own sense of security and defence capabilities.

In recent years, the UK’s defence and security landscape has grown vastly more complex –  shaped by rapid technological changes, global competitors and heightened international tensions.

The Strategic Defence Review reflects this complex reality, highlighting the essential connections between industrial capacity, rapid innovation and strengthened international alliances.

Against this increasingly uncertain backdrop, universities find themselves playing a role in both sustaining national defence capability and safeguarding it. This dual responsibility has never felt sharper, or more consequential.

A defining moment for the sector

Our modern defence ecosystem relies on academic expertise, advanced facilities and a workforce that is trained to operate effectively at the complicated intersection of science, technology and strategy. Our universities are having to navigate a rapidly evolving landscape of research security risks, complex international collaborations and regulatory expectations.

The result is a difficult defining moment for the sector. How do we uphold an open, globally connected research culture, whilst at the same time protecting intellectual assets on which the UK’s security and prosperity depend? And how do we ensure that the people working in defence and security – many of them mid-career engineers, scientists and practitioners – have the right skills and insights needed to thrive in a complex sector facing rapid technological changes?

This is something that we in the sector try to balance daily.

Building research security – and resilience

The UK’s approach to research security has certainly matured significantly in recent years. With a clearer understanding of the vulnerabilities that go with globalised academic collaborations, universities have had to reassess and refine how they build partnerships, manage data and deliver sensitive expertise and research.

Cranfield has long been at the forefront of this agenda and helped to guide trusted research practices across the sector.

We work closely with the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the related Research Collaboration Advice Team (RCAT) and co-led the Higher Education Export Controls Association (HEECA). Cranfield also led the recent evolution of HEECA into the Higher Education Research Security Association (HERSA), reflecting an evolving focus from pure export control to a broader, more comprehensive approach to research security. We are a founder member of the academic practitioner task force supporting Universities UK and the MOD to understand the HE landscape in support of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) and Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) implementation, including shaping the Defence Universities Alliance. And we have a key role in the Network for Security Excellence and Collaboration (NSEC, formerly known as Academic RiSC), supporting universities focused on security and resilience research to better connect with Government and industry.

These collaborations have helped ensure that universities are equipped with the guidance, governance and training needed to protect themselves and their partners.

But the task ahead isn’t just to make research ‘safe’ – it is also to make it resilient. The very success of UK university R&D and our global reputation for academic expertise make us a target.

Hostile foreign states may try to exploit our research, especially in sensitive or fast-developing areas like AI and new materials; dual-use technologies carry the potential for misuse; and we need to be alert to any erosion of trust that underpins our international collaborations.

Building a resilient and robust research system is critical. We must be technically secure, legally compliant, ethically grounded and aware to potential risk. For that, we of course need the right frameworks, and the National Security and Investment Act has helped introduce new safeguards on that front. But we also need the right people – those who understand the nuances of working in a highly regulated and strategically sensitive environment. That brings me to the second challenge.

The importance of mid-career upskilling to defence

Our defence sector relies heavily on specialists with deep, technical expertise, such as explosives engineers, systems integration specialists, military aerospace experts, CBRN practitioners, and many others. We simply can’t build these skills solely through undergraduate provision. This depth of knowledge and insight requires postgraduate-level study, tied with operational experience, trusted networks and ongoing professional development.

Yet in the broader skills debate, where we see an emphasis towards level four skills, for instance, the importance of mid-career upskilling is being overlooked.

Many of our critical defence roles are filled by people who entered the workforce before the rise of new technologies such as AI-enabled systems and autonomy. The knowledge base is expanding quickly – and what we really need is an adaptable workforce; one that can re-train, upskill and respond to emerging capability needs.

We also need people in place who have deep expertise and who think cross-discipline at a systems level. This is something we foster at Cranfield, and it works because it mirrors the actual complexity of modern defence and security, where no challenge can be solved by a single discipline or organisation.

Skills and security reinforce one another

Research security and mid-career upskilling may appear to be quite separate, but they are two sides of the same coin.

A secure research culture depends on people who understand not just technical risk but operational context. A modernised defence workforce requires training environments trusted by government and industry. And the ability to innovate safely in high‑stakes domains relies on researchers and practitioners who can navigate ethical, legal and security considerations as confidently as they operate specialised equipment.

Skills and security reinforce one another. A research ecosystem that is secure but under-skilled can’t deliver sovereign capability. A skilled system without strong research security can’t safely collaborate and scale up innovations. Put simply, we need both.

The creation of the Defence Universities Alliance (DUA) is therefore a timely development. It gives the opportunity for government, industry and academia to create a more coherent and joined-up approach to defence research, skills and collaboration. The UK will build a more connected and resilient ecosystem which can respond rapidly to evolving defence demands.

But to realise the opportunity fully, we must recognise that postgraduate education and research are strategic enablers of national defence. Investing in Level 7 and 8 provisions and investing in mid-career specialists should be seen as investments in sovereign capability and in a robust UK defence and security system.

There’s no doubt there will be further evolutions in defence in the months, years and decades ahead, but I’m confident that building deep expertise, a trusted research system and the ability to be agile at how we respond in partnership will help us meet these challenges. Universities like Cranfield stand ready to play our part.