On Thursday, April 7, 2016, the centre was officially opened by the Minister of Transport and Communications Ketil Solvik-Olsen. During his speech, the Minister made the point that Norway cannot function without ICT infrastructures that people trust. Adequate security is essential to build this trust. Simula@UiB is a new research centre owned by Simula Research Laboratory and the University of Bergen (UiB), and the centre’s overall goal is to increase the security expertise in Norway through research and education.In his speech Helge Dahle, the Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at UiB, thanked the representatives from Simula for their help in establishing the new research centre. Dahle talked about the long history of communication and security research at the Faculty, starting with Professor Ernst S. Selmer at the Department of Mathematics, followed by the creation of the Coding Theory Group, and finally the establishment of the Selmer Centre at the Department of Informatics in 2003. The Research Council of Norway gave the Coding Theory Group and the Selmer Centre top scores during their evaluations of the Norwegian research groups in computer science in 2002 and 2012. The second evaluation suggested that the Selmer Centre should expand its activities in the area of security as an emerging field with significant importance and growth. Simula@UiB is a response to this recommendation.Professor Olav Lysne from Simula Research Laboratory led the Committee of Digital Vulnerabilities in Society that assessed Norway’s security situation in an Official Norwegian Report (NOU) delivered to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security in 2015. In his speech Lysne thanked the Minister of Transport and Communications for providing Simula@UiB with financial support. He also thanked Rector Dag Rune Olsen, Dean Helge Dahle, and Department Head Petter Bjørstad for their strong support. Lysne commended UiB for the willingness to establish a company to increase the research and education activities in an area where Norway needs more expertise. He particularly stressed the need for more expertise in the area of cryptography.
Both Dahle and Lysne thanked CEO Kjell Jørgen Hole and Chief Scientist Øyvind Ytrehus for their work to establish Simula@UiB and underlined the need to cooperate closely with Simula and UiB to educate the security experts Norway needs.To keep up to date on the centre's activities, consult their project pages.