A new scheme aims to connect UK industry and academics on cyber security. Speaking in Israel to promote UK-Israel relations and visit the country’s National Cyber Directorate, Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock, said: “Creating a thriving and innovative cyber security industry is all part of work to make the UK the safest place to live and do business online. This Academic StartUp programme will help turn our world-class research into world-class products and stimulate the development of our cyber security industry.”
The scheme will be funded and delivered by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), with the UK’s innovation agency Innovate UK. Innovate UK, working the SETsquared Partnership, will receive £500k funding from DCMS to extend its ICURe (Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research) to include a cyber security strand.
The scheme has helped Zeetta Networks, a spin-out company from the University of Bristol, secure venture capital funding to develop ultra-HD video distribution, city-wide Wi-Fi and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. And BluPoint, a spin-out company from the University of Southampton which provides free access to digital content and services for those living without the internet, used to scheme to go to new markets in South Africa and the USA.
Paul Mason, Director for Emerging and Enabling Technologies at Innovate UK, said: “The UK now has the opportunity to become a world leader in cyber security, creating jobs and driving productivity and growth. This latest programme will help fund the ideas with the greatest market potential from our world-class research base and support their development into new cyber security products and processes.”
For more details visit http://www.setsquared.co.uk/research-commercialisation/cyber-security-icure-programme. The SETsquared partnership will run the first phase of the cyber security ICURe programme from January to March 2017 working with up to 12 academic teams. SETsquared is the enterprise partnership of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey universities.
Meanwhile also published was the Cyber Essentials Scheme research which outlines industry perceptions of the Government’s scheme to protect businesses from cyber attacks.
