- 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.
