Regional cyber clusters score £700k of funding

The UK Cyber Cluster Collaboration (UKC3), a network of 20 regional clusters of security businesses, employers, and other organisations, has been awarded £700,000 worth of funding by the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) to support its work.

Established earlier in 2021, UKC3 has been tasked with delivering a number of initiatives to promote innovation and skills development around cyber security, in line with government goals, and coordinated with various industry bodies, as well as provide a single contact point for industry stakeholder engagement.

UKC3 will use the fund to provide networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities, help develop skills and innovation, further collaboration on security issues., and eliminate barriers to effective growth.

Announcing the new fund at industry event InfoSec, digital minister Matt Warman said: “Our cyber security sector is already worth £8.9bn and we’re working tirelessly to take its magnificent growth to the next level.

“Our new UK Cyber Cluster Collaboration will help tackle the barriers to growth, boost people’s digital skills and give firms a new route to develop their business acumen.”

UKC3 chair Richard Yorke added: “The UK’s thriving cyber sector is recognised as world leading and through greater collaboration, innovation and skills development we have a real opportunity to deliver growth that benefits businesses and individual citizens across the UK.

“This is an exciting and pivotal time for the cyber industry and we encourage organisations to engage with us to drive growth in the sector,” he said.

Don MacIntyre, interim CEO for the UK Cyber Security Council, which was established by the government to develop the cyber security profession, welcomed the funding package.

“Ultimately, all initiatives to close the skills gap and grow the sector need to have an impact at practitioner-level and cyber firm-level to become ‘real’; local cluster collaborations are an ideal approach to doing this,” he said.

“The Council fully supports initiatives like the UKC3 which create an open, inclusive and professional cyber security culture.”

Earlier today (13 July), the UK Cyber Security Council called for organisations to recommit to effective security training, saying that many organisations had dropped the ball somewhat during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.