- Four UKC3 recognised clusters collaborate with Plexal to deliver the DCMS-funded programme, Cyber Runway.
- Cyber Runway aims to support cyber security development in the UK, with an important focus on female-led enterprises and Black, Asian, or minority ethnic background founders.
- The clusters’ support to Cyber Runway backs-up UKC3’s objective to grow the cyber security sector in the UK through innovation and cyber skills development.
Four UKC3 recognised cyber clusters join Plexal in the Cyber Runway programme to support the growth of the UK’s cyber sector. Cyber Wales, NI Cyber (Northern Ireland), ScotlandIS Cyber and Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster will be working to drive innovation growth in the cyber security sector in their regions.
This is an exciting development for UKC3, which will enable one of the key objectives of this entity, namely driving innovation growth for regional and ultimately national development of the cyber security sector.
Cyber Runway is an accelerator programme, established to directly address the most critical cyber security challenges that affects the UK, such as ransomware or fraud, with innovative technology and diverse cyber skills. An important dimension of the programme is the focus on diversity. The goal of the programme is for 30% of the companies supported to be female-led cyber businesses or 15% of founders to have Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
The programme is backed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and aims to support 160 cyber security companies and entrepreneurs, with 50% of these located outside of London. The regional development of the cyber security sector is another important dimension of Cyber Runway, which is why regional clusters’ involvement in this programme is auspicious.
The expertise of the cyber clusters in coordinating the innovation growth in their respective regions is also visible in other programmes, such as the CyberFirst Schools, supported by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), where the clusters are helping to identify the regional and national skills development actors, mapping activities for supporting the cyber innovation growth.
About the the four UKC3 recognised clusters’ contribution to Cyber Runway, Melanie Oldham OBE (Vice Chair of UKC3) said:
“Cyber innovation growth is essential for growing the cyber security sector across the UK, and our role is to identify the growth actors that can support the talent development and innovation in this industry. The UKC3 recognised clusters that are supporting this programme are able to coordinate with other clusters, as well with non-cluster partners that can provide hands-on training to cyber enterprises that will benefit of this programme, preparing them to tackle and better respond to pressing challenges like ransomware, data, or intellectual property theft, and more.”
