Prospective members

How can I become a member of COINS?

Becoming a member of COINS is very simple. Once you have been accepted as a doctoral candidate in Computer and Information Security at one of the six COINS consortium members, you can apply for COINS membership via the membership form here. Consortium members include NTNU, University of Agder, University of Bergen, University of Oslo, University of Stavanger, and University of Tromsø. If you would like to know more about COINS, you may also contact the COINS representative for your institution.

What can I expect as a member of COINS?

Membership of COINS has many benefits:

Access to the Norwegian network of students and supervisors in the research area of Information Security.
COINS events, including summer and winter schools, and PhD seminars.
Funding assistance for Information Security events (a selection of upcoming events can be found here).
The opportunity to access and collaborate with other Information Security networks, including SWITS and Security Divas.
And most importantly, the opportunity to build a strong network of potential collaborative partners – you and your fellow COINS members may one day do great things together…

Support for COINS students and partners

What is covered by COINS funding?

Financial support conditions might vary per event. As a general rule, the following applies:

COINS students: COINS students get coverage for travel and accommodation using the least expensive practical alternative. Very often it covers also the registration fee, event dinner and a visa (except the Schengen visa), unless stated otherwise. Funding does not include a daily allowance. No support for authors of accepted presentations, but there is support for authors of posters.
COINS supervisors: COINS supervisors get coverage for travel (least expensive practical alternative) and accommodation.
SWITS students: SWITS students get coverage for travel (least expensive practical alternative) and accommodation. Total support is limited to 5,000 NOK per student, unless stated otherwise.
Former COINS students: Reasonable expenses within legal limits.
Partners: Reasonable expenses within legal limits.
Advisory board members: Reasonable expenses within legal limits.
Invited speakers: Reasonable expenses within legal limits.

The travel and accommodation have to be paid by participant and then get reimbursed by COINS after all the requirements have been fulfilled.

At the summer/winter school all lecturers receive a honorarium of 8 x 1,000 NOK = 8,000 NOK per person. The honorarium is paid in addition to reimbursement of travel/accommodation and in addition to any per-diem rates. The honorarium is paid separately. It covers preparation and delivery of teaching at the summer school.

Reflection report from participation in COINS event

The reflection report serves to inform other COINS students about the event you attended and the scientific content of the event. It helps students to get a better picture of the information security community and of current research without being able to attend the event.

It has usually a length of two pages. There is no required structure for the report.

Reports are published on the COINS website, together with a picture showing the student at the event.

Can I apply for COINS funding after I became alumni?

Unfortunately, supporting mobility and networking of students is limited to student members of COINS. After graduation, former student members of COINS are not eligible for such funding. However, we invite former students to the annual Ph.D. seminars to meet the current student members of COINS and share their experience of how life turned out after the Ph.D. Participation in the Ph.D. seminars is financially supported for former COINS students.

What kind of “Type of support ” (cost codes) should I use when applying for funding?

43770 Finse winter school
43771 Metochi summer school
43773 Ph.D. student seminar
43774 Mobility: community exposure (networking): SWITS, NISK, Security Divas etc.
43775 Mobility: short-term research stays (industry placement).

Reimbursement process

The reimbursement process is determined by your relationship with COINS.

COINS students employed by a consortium member: all COINS students will be reimbursed by their own institutions, and are therefore required to submit their reimbursement claims in the usual manner, with the usual receipts etc. The institutions will then invoice COINS for the reimbursed amounts.
COINS students not employed by a consortium member: claims should be sent directly to COINS. Forms for reimbursement can be requested by emailing info@coinsrs.no
Other reimbursement claims should be sent directly to COINS. Forms for reimbursement can be requested by emailing info@coinsrs.no.

How to fill the reimbursement forms?

The Travel and subsistence claim form has several fields, you are only required to fill in: Surname and forename, Home address (incl. Postal code and City), Agency/Institution, Bank account/Girobank, Departure (Date), Return (Date), Claim in connection with (Course or Official journey), and Destination and purpose of journey. These fields all appear at the top of the first page. You also need to put the date and sign the form in the Claimant’s signature field, close to the bottom of the first page. If you have any other remarks, these can be added at the bottom of page 2. Please ensure that you keep and provide all of the receipts and tickets that are relevant for the reimbursement.

The Payment Abroad form is fairly straight forward.

We will also need you to provide us with your passport number to complete the reimbursement process.

The forms and receipts can be scanned and returned to our Financial Assistant, Jingjing Yang (jingjing.yang2@ntnu.no), or you can post them to the faculty at this address:

NTNU
Attn: Jingjing Yang
Faculty of Computer Science and Media Technology
P O Box 191
2802 Gjøvik
NORWAY

COINS activities

How can non-NTNU students receive credits for attending the summer/winter schools and seminars?

Non-NTNU students do not have access to NTNU system. Therefore, after the results are registered the exam office at NTNU needs to send a Transcript of records to these students.

If you are a non-NTNU student and you would like to receive the credits please send an e-mail to the exam office (eksamen@ntnu.no), after you get the result, and the exam office will send you a Transcript of Records.

Short research stay abroad

The idea of the research stays with COINS partners is to give students the opportunity to go abroad without requiring them to stay for a long time. Students without an integrated stay abroad as part of their PhD project might have family obligations that prevent them from travelling for a longer period. Another opportunity arises from staying with a COINS partner for a short time to find out if there is a basis for a more intensive cooperation with the research group or industry that could advance the PhD project.

You can get funding to travel to and stay with a COINS partner for usually up to two weeks. Existing COINS partners are listed here: https://coinsrs.no/partners-researcher-training/, https://coinsrs.no/partners-research-labs/, https://coinsrs.no/partners-public-sector/

If the partner you are interested in is not yet a COINS partner, get in touch with the organisation and convince them to become a COINS partner. COINS partners in general agree to host one COINS student per year for up to two weeks. Hosting means that the student will have a place/desk at the institution and someone to talk to. COINS covers travel and accommodation. Organisations can apply for partner status here: https://coinsrs.no/become-a-coins-partner/

If you want to stay with a COINS partner and do not have an existing relationship with the organisation, talk to the COINS activity management office (info@coinsrs.no) to assist you in establishing a contact.

Organisations working with information security in Norway

ISF – Information Security Forum is the world’s leading authority on cyber, information security and risk management.

NSR – Næringslivets Sikkerhetsråd (Industry Security) is organization created by the private sector’s key organizations with the purpose of fighting crime in the business sector. This is done through a formalized and active network against police and public security authorities and the business sector.

NSM – Nasjonal sikkerhetsmyndighet is Norway’s expert body for information and object security, and is the national professional environment for ICT security. The Directorate is the national notification and coordination body for the serious computer attacks and other ICT security incidents.

Tekna – Teknisk-naturvitenskapelig forening (Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals) is a union for graduate technical and scientific professionals in Norway.

DND – Den Norske Dataforening (The Norwegian Computer Society) is the largest special interest society for information technology (IT) in Norway.

FRISC – Forum for Research and Innovation in Security and Communications is network in VERDIKT program, supported by the Research Council. The purpose of it is to create meeting places for research and innovation in information security, where information sharing and value-added exploitation of results can happen with an international perspective.

NISK – Norsk Informasjonssikkerhetskonferanse (Norwegian Information Security Conference) is an annual international conference for the dissemination of knowledge-based value creation and innovation. The conference invites researchers and practitioners who are interested in presenting, developing and connecting new results in information security area.

NIK – Norsk Informatikkonferanse is an established national conference for dissemination of research and advanced development in computer science.

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