The BeOneSec Cybersecurity and Cyberintelligence Chair, a collaboration between the University of Seville and BeOneSec, has launched the second edition of its research grant program with the addition of two new researchers and the opening of two new lines of research focused on protecting critical industrial infrastructure. The projects, developed in collaboration with the Department of Telematics Engineering at the University of Seville and specialists from the company, address strategic challenges in the security of operational technology (OT) systems and applied cyberintelligence—areas of increasing importance for protecting essential services and industrial environments.

Two projects addressing one of the sector's most pressing problems

The research lines of this edition focus on the security of operational technology systems, those that control, for example, industrial plants. These are environments where a security failure doesn't result in compromised data, but rather in interrupted essential services.

The first project works on the development of an inventory and risk analysis system for OT assets following the ISA/IEC 62443 standard, the international reference framework in industrial safety.

The second works on building a passive identification system for devices in industrial networks: a system capable of detecting equipment, versions and vulnerabilities in a plant without interfering with its operation, supported by lightweight hardware and industrial protocols such as SCADA or Modbus.

What working with real data offers

For Rafael Estepa Alonso, Director of the Chair and Professor in the Department of Telematics Engineering at the University of Seville, these grants address a specific limitation of the academic environment: “At the University, we have the rigor and the methodology. What we struggle with is obtaining real-world data: active attacks, production systems, threats that are happening right now. BeOneSec has that. The grants are the channel that allows us to bridge the gap; students investigate problems that matter, with information that would otherwise never reach the lab.”.

The researchers themselves confirm this from within: "Although it's research, from the very beginning it feels like a real project, something with tangible value that can be carried out in real-world scenarios, and with which we can contribute the results of our work to solving a problem that the sector is currently facing. It's not a promise for the future, it's an effort in the present," says Raúl Heras.

Juan Martínez, for his part, confirms that “the most valuable thing is not what you learn, but how you learn to learn in an environment where the answers are not in books. Every week something new appears that you hadn't seen before.”.

A program that grows based on results

The first edition, held in 2025, trained two students from the Higher Technical School of Engineering in applied research on threat detection and infrastructure analysis. Both worked with real-world data and case studies from the sector for six months. This second edition builds on that success and features projects with greater technical depth.

The scholarships are part of the work of the BeOneSec Cybersecurity and Cyberintelligence Chair, but not the only one. Throughout the academic year, its specialists give seminars in the University of Seville's Master's Program in Cybersecurity, participate in courses within the Telecommunications Engineering degree program, and award prizes to the best undergraduate and master's theses in the field. 
The criterion is always the same: to bring the knowledge generated in the sector into the classroom so that, in the future, these students can help solve the challenges of tomorrow.

About the BeOneSec Chair of Cybersecurity and Cyberintelligence

Joint initiative between the University of Seville and BeOneSec focused on research, dissemination and training in cybersecurity and cyber intelligence.

Web: catedra.us.es/ciberbeonesec · Contact: catedra@beonesec.com