The Government has today set out its Cyber Growth Action Plan, where it will examine the strengths of the UK’s cyber sector with a view to creating a set of recommendations for the sector’s growth.
Its plans include £16 million in new investment for two cyber sector programmes to kickstart growth. £10 million in additional funding will be invested in the CyberASAP programme over the next four years. This will support the UK’s academic cyber sector to turn their research into commercial companies.
The programme has already supported the creation of 34 spin-out companies which have raised more than £43 million in investment. The new funding aims to generate a further 25 spinouts by 2030 and attract £30 million in additional investment.
Building on its current cyber accelerator Cyber Runway, the government is also allocating £6 million to support cyber startups and SMEs. It said it wants to help firms scale, access new markets through trade missions, and strengthen the UK’s wider cyber ecosystem.
“Cyber security is essential to our economic strength and national resilience. Today’s announcement is backed by investment showing we’re serious about making the UK a global leader in cyber innovation and protection,” said Cyber Security Minister Feryal Clark, in a statement.
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“Through our Plan for Change, we’re backing the sector to create high-quality jobs through the Cyber Growth Action Plan and ensuring our public services are built on secure foundations with the expert support of the Government Cyber Advisory Board.”
National Cyber Strategy
The Growth Action Plan is due to report later this summer and will feed into the forthcoming National Cyber Strategy.
The review is set to cover the supply and demand of cyber goods and services such as protective monitoring and encryption, to understand opportunities for growth. The research will aim to spot new trends and potential areas to capitalise on, as well as explore emerging technologies including AI and Quantum.
Senior cybersecurity experts from defence, big tech companies, AI labs, academia and more are also advising the government on public sector cybersecurity. Cyber leaders from BAE Systems, Santander, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google DeepMind will form the new iteration of the Government Cyber Advisory Board.
Earlier this year, the Technology Secretary set out his ambition for the forthcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill which includes proposals to protect the UK’s supply chains, critical national services, and IT service providers and suppliers and is expected to be introduced to Parliament later this year.
