CYRENZH Summer School 2026
Human Factors in Cybersecurity and Privacy: Interdisciplinary Research Methods

Human factors in cybersecurity and privacy are an emerging field for research and industry and due to the increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, their importance is growing. To enhance cybersecurity through fostering cyberresilience, recent approaches in research ask for novel methods to account for enabling approaches that view human factors and technology as partners.

Thus, aiming to provide detailed knowledge and hands-on experience, the participants of the second edition of the CYRENZH Summer School 2026 are going to understand in-depth and experience themselves in practical exercises interdisciplinary research methods (e.g. mixed-methods approaches, the use of AI in research) from the field of Social Sciences, but also with inputs from Computer Science. Further, this summer school is supplemented with an emphasis on transdisciplinary topics such as communication skills, ethical considerations, and collaborations with industry. This year, we are visiting the research unit of Cyber-Defence Campus of armasuisse, which forms the link between the Swiss government, industry and academia in research, development, and training for cyber defence.

The CYRENZH Summer School 2026 welcomes participants from diverse backgrounds interested in understanding and applying different research methods/approaches for interdisciplinary research focused on human factors in cybersecurity. We prepared an interactive course, where participants can apply the learnings directly to improve their own research projects / proposals. And with the visit to Cyber-Defence Campus of armasuisse, participants are able to get an exclusive insight into Security Research.

The CYRENZH Summer School 2026 welcomes early-career researchers (e.g. students in the transition from MSc to PhD, PhD students, …) from diverse backgrounds interested in understanding and applying different research methods/approaches for interdisciplinary research focused on human factors in cybersecurity. We prepared an interactive course, where participants are encouraged to apply learnings from various research methods directly to improve their own research projects / proposals. Besides that, exchanging experiences and social activities are a central part of the CYRENZH Summer School 2026 too!

For more information about what the participants experienced during the CYRENZH Summer School 2025,check out this
blog post

Place, Date, Participation Fee, Registration

The CYRENZH Summer School will take place from June 29th – July 3rd 2026 at Digital Society Initiative (DSI) in Zurich.

Application / registration deadline: April 30th 2026

Participation Fee: CHF 500.00
The participation fee includes lunches on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, the summer school joint dinner on Wednesday, the apéro riche on Friday and the visit to Cyber-Defence Campus of armasuisse, social activities on Wednesday, as well as an official certificate of attendance (not included is your accommodation and travel expenses to and from Zurich).

Registration: If you wish to register, please send an email (including your CV and a brief letter of motivation attached in one PDF file) to benjamin.ambuehl [at] uzh.ch.

Target Group

Participants should have a background and interest in cybersecurity / privacy / Human-Computer-Interaction / or related fields, but do not have to be necessarily experts in human factors:

  • Graduate students (i.e. PhD-Students, Master Students, or Early Career Researchers) with an own research project ongoing (e.g. PhD-Thesis or M.Sc.-Thesis) or currently writing a research proposal.
  • Practitioners working in the industry but interested in the topic of human factors in cybersecurity and privacy.

Learning Outcomes / ECTS

At the end of the CYRENZH Summer School 2026 participants…

  • … can apply the interdisciplinary methods (mixed-methods; AI; extended reality) to cybersecurity related research questions (i.e. to their own research projects or proposals).
  • … can critically reflect and discuss ethical considerations of their own research on human factors in cybersecurity.
  • … can communicate complex research findings (e.g., of their own research) or proposals to a lay audience.

As an output, and to receive a certificate of 3 ECTS, the participants first are asked to submit a short report, or presentation how their own research project / proposal benefits from the learnings during the summer school. Second, participants will review the contribution of other participants.

Programme (Programme is subject to change)

Coming soon

Lecturers