RESIST - Resilience and Security for Trustworthy AI Systems

Our vision is to make Sweden a role model in secure trustworthy AI by pioneering cyber resilience across the AI lifecycle.

Trustworthy AI requires strong cyber resilience

As AI becomes rapidly woven into the critical functions of society, the need to understand how to make these technologies resilient, in an uncertain and rapidly changing world, is growing just as quickly.

The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into sectors such as critical infrastructure, autonomous transport systems, industrial automation, and digital services provides immense transformative potential. However, this integration also introduces significant vulnerabilities, as AI systems are susceptible to new forms of cyber threats and operational failures. Verifiable trustworthy and secure mechanisms to ensure the resilience of AI systems against such threats are thus necessary, especially in times of geopolitical instability. To address this, RESIST systematically builds a world-class multi-disciplinary research center, bringing together leading researchers and national initiatives for driving research and development of cyber-resilient AI systems for the benefit of Swedish industry and society.

The RESIST funding of 60 million SEK comes from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research SSF.

Strong roots in AI and cybersecurity

The overarching scientific challenge is to develop novel techniques and methods with strong roots in AI and cybersecurity to achieve holistic cyber resilience throughout the AI lifecycle. This means that even during the face of adversarial conditions and unforeseen disturbances maintain:

security
privacy
operational integrity
trustworthiness for AI models, systems and agents

The two communities, AI and security, cover complementary aspects of AI security but tend to rarely intersect. Security researchers bring domain rigor and practical threat models, while AI researchers emphasize robustness and new methodologies. The result is a field that is growing in volume but divided in vision, leaving significant opportunities unexplored at the intersection of the two. RESIST will focus on this intersection.

RESIST is hosted

by Linköping University.

About RESIST

RESIST consists of

Research program

RESIST develops methods for:

ensuring the trustworthiness and verifiability of AI models during their entire lifecycle
securing AI models against runtime attacks
ensuring that systems developed using AI are robust and secure
establishing resilient AI architectures that can withstand failures without compromising performance.

These four themes are the starting point of the RESIST research program. As the field is very dynamic and rapidly evolving, we will track progress and adapt the themes accordingly.

Validation program

AI-driven critical infrastructure
AI-empowered software services
AI-automated robots and vehicles

To ensure that the methods and solutions developed by the center can benefit society, the center runs an extensive program for evaluating, testing, and validating its results in collaboration with external stakeholders.

Activities

Strategic research agenda
Education and training
Policy and strategy advise
Internationalization
Dissemination

RESIST functions as a national hub for expertise in cyber‑resilient AI, contributing to new courses and improved education, disseminating knowledge through events and public lectures, and supporting policymakers in the development of effective policies.

To ensure effective operations and international excellence, the center has

A management

consisting of a director and a manager.

A board

consisting of five stakeholder representatives and one dean-level representative from each partner.

An advisory committee

consisting of five internationally prominent researchers covering the topics of RESIST.

Contact us

Contact RESIST: fredrik.heintz@liu.se

Researchers at Linköping University

Director of RESIST

Researchers at Lund University

Christian Gehrmann

Researchers at RISE

Researchers at Örebro University

Collaboration for impact

RESIST consists of researchers

within AI‑ and cybersecurity from Linköping University, Lund University, RISE and Örebro University.

RESIST builds on the strengths of

two WASP cybersecurity NESTs, two WASP assistant professors, one WASP guest professor, and several related projects and national initiatives.

The consortium has very strong

international connections especially in the EU and is supported by leading companies and organizations such as Saab, Ericsson and FOI among others.

News

A red and green light shining on a wall.

03 March 2026

RESIST is recruiting in cyber resilient AI

RESIST is recruiting seven PhD students and two postdocs to strengthen Sweden’s position in secure and trustworthy AI. The positions are part of the national center for cyber resilient AI.

Porträtt av Fredrik Heintz som sitter i en trappa

19 December 2025

National initiative to protect AI systems from cyberattacks

LiU will host a new national centre aimed at developing resilient AI systems. The funding of SEK 60 million comes from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research and its director will be LiU Professor Fredrik Heintz.

More about AI and cybersecurity at LiU

Artificial intelligence at Linköping University

Linköping University (LiU) has over 100 university courses related to AI and AI competence at every department. AI at LiU is about AI techniques as well as applications of these techniques, about views on AI, how it benefits society, ethical guidelines etc.

Cybersecurity research at Linköping University

Linköping University conducts world-class research and education in cybersecurity, helping to equip students and society for future cybersecurity challenges.

RESIST - Resilience and Security for Trustworthy AI Systems

Trustworthy AI requires strong cyber resilience