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Role Description

UKC3 is seeking one or more consultants to work on the Northern cyber security clusters collaboration project. Its aim is to explore the opportunity and possibility of emulating the success of the South West and Western Gateway regions by creating greater collaboration across the cyber security clusters in the North of England.

This work must be completed by the end of March 2023.

Funding available is £45,000 (negotiable) plus reasonable expenses. 80% to be paid in instalments on a monthly basis in arrears and 20% upon completion.

The application process will close on 3 November 2022 and shortlisted candidates will be expected to attend an online interview during the week commencing November 2022.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send a CV, a covering letter detailing why you are interested in the project, relevant experience and any other relevant information to phil.j@ukc3.org.

Key outputs:

The overall aim of the project is to explore the opportunity and possibility of emulating the success of the South West and Western Gateway regions by creating greater collaboration across the cyber security clusters in the North of England. This requires the consultant(s) to:

• Map regional cyber security assets across the areas covered by Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster, the North West Cyber Security Cluster and Cybernorth in the North East, including private, academic and public assets.
• Bring the representatives of these assets together, as required to share understanding of findings and objectives.
• Define common opportunities and areas of potential conflict.
• Explore and advise on how these assets can collaborate to provide a more consistent approach across the North of England.
• Support the development of a strategic approach to selling the services better and increasing investment in the cyber security sector across Northern England including a next steps plan
• Suggest aggregation opportunities, where identified.
• Produce a draft and final report

The consultant(s) will be expected to:

• Engage with key stakeholders across the region, individually and in groups including some in person.
• Attend regular project meetings.
• Retain evidence of such meetings including related expenses.
• Create and maintain a project plan.

Experience required:

• Experience of projects involving multiple organisations across private, public and learning sectors
• Experience of working with stakeholders at all levels within an organisation.
• Experience of working in the IT sector, preferably within the cyber security sector

Competencies:

• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Ability to function effectively in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.
• Ability to work with technical, commercial and financial functions.
• Superb written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent administrative and organisational skills.

For more information on the Northern cyber security clusters collaboration project: Requirements document

• UKC3 and associated cyber clusters networked with cyber and tech experts at InfoSec London.

• The highlight of the event for UKC3 was the workshop on growing companies through regional alliances.

• Connections made at Infosec can open new avenues for collaboration at local, regional, national, and even international levels.

UK Cyber Cluster Collaboration (UKC3) debuted at Infosecurity Europe 2022 last month. One of Europe’s leading cyber security event of the year gathered cyber and tech companies from the UK and abroad at the ExCel exhibition hall. 

The event provided an ideal opportunity for the cyber sector to understand the benefits of the UK’s cyber cluster network, as well as to find out more about their local cluster. The UKC3 exhibition stand proved to be a popular destination for delegates and other exhibitors with many signing up to join. 

The UKC3 highlight of InfoSec 2022 was the Security Workshop. On 22nd June, the second day of the cyber event, the cluster network  hosted their workshop on “How To Accelerate Your Company’s Growth Through Regional Alliance?”, dedicated to cyber security and technology companies at the show. Suzanne Lowe, Head of the Cyber Sector Team at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) introduced UKC3 to the participants at the workshop, after which, Richard Yorke, Chair of UKC3 briefly presented the organisation and its remit, leading the way into the three sessions of the workshop.

The workshop was structured into three sessions, covering innovation, cyber security skills growth and ecosystem development. Each session was coordinated by board members of UKC3 and associated clusters representatives, who kept the participants actively engaged in discussions related to the main topic of the workshop.

Richard Yorke and Judith Miller (Business Development Manager, CSIT) conducted the session dedicated to cyber skills growth, which attracted great interest from participants. The key ideas voiced during this session were:

• Cyber clusters have the opportunity to engage with skills programmes like apprenticeships and internships, facilitating students’ experience across different organisations.
• Preparing students for the cyber workforce needs school support, and clusters can get involved by suggesting free or low-cost cyber training programmes.
• Larger companies need to get involved in supporting new talent development in the industry.

Ciara Mitchell, Ecosystem Development Lead at UKC3 coordinated the ecosystem development session, and the main findings that came out of this session were:

• The need to develop a clear and smooth process for disseminating information from key national cyber organisations to cyber clusters that can then cascade the information further to their network or members.
• The need to identify priorities for cyber clusters to support each other through know-how and expertise.
• The need to provide further opportunities for in-person meetings for the cyber clusters.

Leading the innovation session, Linda Smith, Innovation Lead at UKC3, identified the following main findings:

• UKC3 should create an innovation capability matrix for all clusters to reference and use collaboration opportunities, particularly regional innovation assets that could work more effectively with cluster networks. 
• There has also been identified the option to create a Cyber Cluster – Digital Security Supply Chain for new R&D into regional, national and international networks. 
• Greater awareness on innovation funds either via Innovate UK or Digital Catapult  that Clusters could be provided with as a centrally offered resource.

Infosecurity Europe 2022 also marked the launch of the newest cyber security cluster recognised by UKC3, Surrey Cyber Security Cluster, supported by University of London (Royal Holloway), University of Surrey, Surrey County Council and local cyber companies.

Commenting about InfoSec 2022, UKC3 Chair Richard Yorke said:

“We noticed a great interest in UKC3 coming from local, regional or national cyber or tech companies in the UK, and this confirms that there is a significant need for companies of all sizes to get in touch and become members of their regional cyber clusters. Furthermore, we were positively surprised to learn that international companies were interested in what we do and exploring further collaboration opportunities, that we’re open to. ”

For more information about UKC3 visit our website, LinkedIn or Twitter profiles.

• Swindon &  Wiltshire Cyber Cluster (SWCC) launched on 24 May at the Business Cyber Centre in Chippenham.

• SWCC announced future plans through 2022/2023, including the CyberICE Conference for the Future at the end of June.

• SWCC is formally recognised by UKC3 and through its events and programmes, supports its three pillars: innovation, cyber skills growth and ecosystem development.

Last month saw the launch of UKC3’s recognised cluster, Swindon & Wiltshire Cyber Cluster. To mark the occasion, the cluster held their first event, “Helping shape the environment of cyber security”, welcoming 25 cyber-led businesses from across the region, with an impressive line-up of speakers to celebrate the occasion. 

The event was held at the newly opened UK’s first Business Cyber Centre (BCC) in Chippenham with guests participating in an exciting agenda covering the current state of cyber in the region, through key topics like operational resilience, strengthening the UK cyber, or SWCC’s role in bringing more innovation and collaboration through cyber security. 

Brea Woods, Project Manager at SWCC said “I am delighted that the launch event for the Swindon & Wiltshire Cyber Cluster (SWCC) was such a success. We had wonderful speakers – Tom Marshall, Operations Manager at the Business Cyber Centre; Lauren Metalle from the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport and Alan Hill from Splunk – all leading on conversations around the key topic of Helping shape the environment of cyber security’.

It is a great time for the SWCC to help propel the creation of the best ecosystem for our local industries whilst dealing with society’s cyber challenges.  Through collaboration, partnership opportunities, and networking, we aim for ideas and best practices to be shared and developed.  This will provide our cyber security businesses the opportunities to find new ways to thrive and drive innovation across Swindon and Wiltshire whilst also supporting non-cyber businesses in the region.”

SWCC announced their future plans, which included the CyberICE Conference for the Future: Innovate, Collaborate, Educate, which will take place on 30 June. This event is dedicated to SMEs from all sectors and it is an opportunity for Swindon & Wiltshire Cyber Cluster to highlight their drive, strategy, mission, and collaboration plans.

Expert speakers from across the UK will present in person and via the state-of-the-art technology available at the Business Cyber Centre. Speakers for the conference include:

•       Simon Hepburn, Chief Executive Officer of UK Cyber Security Council – will discuss their latest initiatives
•       James Stanley, Head of Sectoral Engagement Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) – will discuss The National Cyber Strategy and supporting local ecosystems.
•       Dominic Simonis – Law and Mike Madden, Defence and Security Accelerator Liaison, Ministry of Defence – will talk about how to get innovative ideas into defence and defence digital.
•       Richard Yorke, Chair of the UK Cyber Cluster Collaboration (UKC3) – will talk about the role of UKC3, collaboration across all the clusters and future events.
•       Professor Kamal Bechkoum and Laura Whitmore from The University of Gloucestershire, Cyber skills bootcamps – will be delving into their next wave of bootcamps being launched in October for the following skills: Cyber Analysts, Software Engineers, Data Analysts.
•       Katie Stebbins, President of Global EPIC will talk about the International Cluster and the wider cyber community.
•       Kerrianne Gould, Community Manager, Bristol and Bath Cyber Cluster – will be focussing on Cyber First and how clusters are supporting across their regions.

This event will be open to people outside of the Swindon and Wiltshire area so the cluster can showcase how they are supporting the region. Businesses can register here to secure their place. 

Regarding SWCC’s role in developing the UK cyber sector, Brea added: “The cluster will also support both the UK Government’s Cyber Security Strategy and Swindon & Wiltshire’s Local Industrial Strategy by building cyber security knowledge, skills, infrastructure, and capabilities to make all local businesses more resilient to cyber-attacks through minimising risks.”

Swindon &  Wiltshire Cyber Cluster is a UKC3-recognised cyber cluster that is contributing to growing the UK cyber sector across the three main pillars that UKC3 supports: innovation, cyber skills growth and ecosystem development. Through activities such as CyberICE and others to come, SWCC is disseminating UKC3’s cyber strategy across their region, and finding new collaboration avenues to support its goals. To find out more or to join, please head here.

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• UKC3-recognised cyber clusters are supporting cyber skills growth in the UK through events, initiatives and joint programmes.

• Cyber skills growth is one of UKC3’s main pillars for developing the cyber security sector in the UK.

• Cyber clusters’ efforts to support the cyber skills growth in the UK are backed by DCMS.

An important component of the overall strategic objective of developing the UK’s cyber security sector is cyber skills growth. Through this component, UKC3 is helping organisations acquire basic or advanced technical skills. The purpose of advancing cyber skills is to prevent cyber threats that have become more prevalent in recent years. A recent report that evaluated the cyber security skills in the UK labour market found that there is a significant gap in advanced technical skills such as penetration testing, forensic analysis and security architecture or engineering.

As part of its remit to support the development of the UK’s cyber security sector, UKC3 is actively involved in cyber skills growth programmes and initiatives. Each month, UKC3-recognised cyber clusters are organising or supporting actions meant to accelerate the cyber skills growth in their respective regions. UKC3 is providing funding, enabling networking and knowledge exchange sessions. The organisation is identifying opportunities for clusters to contribute to the regional and ultimately national growth of the cyber security sector. Here is an overview of the activities carried out within UKC3-recognised cyber clusters to support the cyber skills growth.

Cyber Security Events to Support the Cyber Skills Growth

Bristol and Bath Cyber are organising monthly cyber networking meetings. On March 8th, the cluster conducted the “Second Tuesday Cyber Networking”. This event focused on understanding the cyber skills gap and the training needs in the region for 2022. A major focus of the meeting was securing future talent in the cyber sector. In addition, the event uncovered the challenges facing cyber businesses in recruiting and retaining staff in 2022. A specific topic was inclusivity and diversity in the workplace.

South West Cyber Security Cluster are holding monthly cyber security networking events, with the purpose of allowing cybersec professionals to share their knowledge and expertise with the community and unskilled cyber security individuals. The cluster also held their 15th Annual Event on March 23rd, “Secure South West 15”. The event focused, among other interesting topics, on cyber skills development. In this sense, their line-up of speakers facilitated the connection between education and industry, providing a broad perspective on the varied opportunities in cyber security.

ScotlandIS is organising various programmes meant to support cyber skills growth across their region. Their Digital Critical Friends programme pairs secondary school teachers with relevant practitioners and companies in the tech sector. Businesses of all sizes including Codify, Amazon, Virgin Money, i-confidential, Cutitronics, and Adobe have joined to help shape future curriculum and teaching methods. ScotlandIS has also contributed to the DCMS-led programme “Cyber Runway”, supporting the cyber security development in the UK.

Other clusters supporting the DCMS-led initiative Cyber Runway were Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster, NI Cyber (Northern Ireland) and Cyber Wales. Their contribution to this programme consisted in identifying the growth actors that can support the talent development and innovation in this industry.

In the upcoming months, UKC3 and its recognised cyber clusters will continue to drive cyber skills growth through new initiatives and events at regional and national level. Some of these events include Scot-Secure 2022, Infosecurity Europe or CyberUK 2022. More details to come, follow UKC3 on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates.

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