Around £8 million in government funding will be made available over seven years to support the creation of two Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Cyber Security, which are expected to each deliver at least 24 doctoral graduates over the centres' lifetime.

David Delpy, the EPSRC's chief executive, said: "The centres will be required to address the broad range of issues involved in cyber security, from the technical to sociological.

"They will have to call on a wide range of expertise and deliver the multidisciplinary training we need to underpin the work of the UK's next generation cyber security experts."

The courses will last for four years, comprising masters-level education in cyber security subjects and an original research project. The first group of students are expected to start in October or November 2013.

Each centre will need to focus primarily on one of two research domains.