The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is starting a new research effort to help CISOs better manage cybersecurity within critical infrastructure companies. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Schneider Electric SE are early members of the consortium, according to MIT.

The program, which includes a forum for chief information security officers of member companies, will look at issues such as risk analysis, return on investment for cybersecurity software and developing models for helping organizations better protect themselves, including applying industrial safety concepts to cybersecurity.

 “We’re hoping to develop a number of new approaches and techniques that measure security culture in organizations,” says Stuart Madnick, who is leading MIT’s Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity or (IC)3, one of the program’s initiatives.