An official £4m competition has been announced for UK cyber businesses to develop ideas for cyber security. Business Secretary Vince Cable also announced the appointment of a cyber security small business champion, and funding for projects. He was speaking at a first US-UK Global Cyber Security Innovation Summit in London
The competition will be run by the Technology Strategy Board, the government’s innovation agency, in 2015, which will award funding to the firms with the best ideas.
Ahead of the summit, Cable said: “The growth of the cyber security sector in the UK is a great success story, worth over £6 billion and employing around 40,000 people. Building a strong and resilient cyberspace in the UK is central to ensuring that our companies can make the most of business opportunities online, whilst avoiding potentially costly threats to the information they hold and the services they provide. Maintaining innovation and growth requires continued investment. Committing a further £4 million will help businesses of all sizes turn their ideas to counter cyber threats into reality. Partnering with industry experts will also increase the opportunities for the UK’s small cyber companies to work together and grow their businesses.”
The cyber security small business champion is Andy Williams, from the UK technology trade association techUK. Andy will be responsible for mapping cyber security small businesses, and will set up a UK wide growth project to encourage them to work closer together.
Andy Williams said: “Given the rapidly evolving global cyber threat landscape, the emergence of highly innovative and agile new companies with specialist cyber capability will be vital to ensuring the future safety and prosperity of the UK. The extra funding that BIS is providing to support cyber start-ups and small business will be key to ensuring the UK’s position as a global leader in cyber security.”
And Dr Emma Philpott, managing director of cyber and technology firm Key IQ, will lead a project to work with local volunteers to establish regional clusters of small companies working in cyber security. She was the founder of the Malvern cyber security cluster and the UK Cyber Security Forum.
Dr Emma Philpott said: “Small companies working in cyber security are active all across the UK. The clusters we are helping to set up will meet monthly, be free to join and give their members an opportunity to network together and partner each other. We have had enormous enthusiasm for this already and groups are already planned for five new regions.”
Both projects will be delivered through the Cyber Growth Partnership which is a forum of government representatives, academia cyber security companies and trade bodies working to support the sector in the UK.
Some 250 members of government and industry attended the two-day UK-US event at the British Museum.
