Noëlle Van der Waag-Cowling

Noëlle Van der Waag-Cowling is the Strategy and Innovation Officer at the Cyber Security Institute in South Africa. She is a Research Fellow at the School for Data and Computational Sciences at SU, where her work for the Mandela Mining Precinct is aimed at integrating security across operational technology and information technology domains. She is the co-lead on the Global Security North-South Partnership Project led by the Arctic University of Norway, which focuses on North-South perspectives and cooperation on global security challenges. Noëlle is also an affiliate member of the Secure Societies research group at UiT Arctic University of Norway.

She is passionate about digital capacity building in Africa and strengthening human security on the continent. Her work has a strong focus on emerging technology threats and national strategic and response architectures. Since 2024 Noëlle has been the regional co-ordinator of the Southern Africa-Netherlands Cyber Security School. Noëlle has served as an expert to the Tana Forum on Security in Africa and as a member of the Group of Global Experts to the International Committee of the Red Cross on the protection of civilians during cyberwarfare. She was also an affiliate member of the University of Canberra’s National Security Hub between 2020 and 2024.