Two Darmstadt-based Fraunhofer Institutes, the Technical University of Darmstadt and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences work together at the Center for Cybersecurity Research. Research Minister Karliczek and Minister Rhein were impressed by the progress made in cybersecurity using the example of the digital city of Darmstadt and emphasized the great importance of cybersecurity research for digitalization in business and society.

Federal Minister Karliczek emphasized: "We must shape digitalization for the benefit of people. There is no way around cyber security; it is a basic prerequisite. The pioneering cooperation projects of the CRISP competence center impressively demonstrate how innovative IT security solutions are fundamentally shaping the digital transformation. Anyone who wants to effectively enable the intelligent use of limited resources in cities and urban areas with their critical infrastructures, for example, needs applied cyber security."

During her visit, Karliczek praised the research and development at the location as a catalyst for cybersecurity innovations and the improvement of IT security in the state and society: "The CRISP competence center promotes cooperation between universities, non-university research and companies in particular. This collaboration can accelerate the transfer of knowledge into everyday life. The results are also used in the digital city of Darmstadt and bring new opportunities and possibilities of digitalization directly to the citizens. Together with the state of Hesse, we therefore want to develop CRISP into a permanent National Research Center for Applied Cybersecurity."

Hesse's Science Minister Boris Rhein: "Germany is on the right track when it comes to cyber security. As Hesse's Science Minister, I am particularly pleased that, thanks to CRISP, Darmstadt is one of the world's leading research locations for application-oriented cyber security and data protection. Hesse is now better positioned than any other federal state in Germany when it comes to research and development in the fields of cyber security and data protection."

The partners of CRISP are the Darmstadt-based Fraunhofer Institutes for Computer Graphics Research IGD and for Secure Information Technology SIT, the Technical University of Darmstadt and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. This partnership is the largest alliance of research institutions in the field of cyber security in Europe.