About Us

The IT Innovation Centre is an applied research centre specialising in the advancement of innovative information technologies and their deployment in industry and commerce. We work at the forefront of emerging technology, taking cutting-edge research and using it in innovative ways to help solve the big societal challenges that we face in the world today.

We have teams working on secure systems, risk management, cyber security, crisis management, decision support, big data, information discovery, internet of things, social media analysis and social behaviour in complex human machine networks. This range of expertise is applied across industry sectors as diverse as health, media, e-government, oil & gas exploration, marine systems, education, transport and security.

Much of our work is performed within collaborative projects at both national and international level, working with researchers, industry and technology users in a spirit of partnership, developing new ideas and applications that draw on and develop our broad technical expertise.

Our work is made widely available through practical demonstrators, proof-of-principle software systems, publications and technical reports.

Part of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, we are based at the Highfield Campus.

Leadership

Creativity is at the heart of what we do at IT Innovation. Cultivating a flow of pioneering ideas that offer the potential to transform people's lives using information technology is a motivating force that drives us all. Our capacity to rapidly turn these ideas into benefits for partners through collaborative, applied, research and innovation makes IT Innovation a truly exciting place to be.

Michael Boniface
Director of the IT Innovation Centre

What I find most exciting and challenging is the incredible variety of projects, applications and research challenges we get involved in. Our advanced research strategy focuses on solving practical issues of using novel IT by teaming with pure researchers, tech companies and users, addressing issues including the user experience, trust, security and performance to add real economic value.

Mike Surridge
Deputy Head of the IT Innovation Centre

Careers at IT Innovation Centre

The IT Innovation Centre offers positions at a number of levels, from Research Engineer to Senior and Principal Research Engineer levels. Temporary positions for project assistants are also available.

We provide strong support for career progression, with on-the-job learning opportunities helping you deepen your existing skills and gain new expertise. Staff at IT Innovation enjoy sharing their skills in a collaborative environment, whilst formal training in technical and non-technical topics is also available to support personal development.

We are passionate about what we do, and the Centre supports cross-project engagement and learning with a number of Special Interest Groups. These groups focus on technical topics (e.g. artifical intelligence, systems modelling) and the broader picture around IT applications (e.g. socio-economics, codesign). Whilst we collaborate widely across discplines such as social sciences health sciences, environmental sciences and beyond.

We offer a number of employment benefits, which are detailed on our vacancies page.

The IT Innovation Centre is a part of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, complementing campus-based academic research with our targeted applied research portfolio. The University of Southampton, a founding member of the Russell Group, has gained a prestigious recognition for its many successes and its history of world-changing achievements.