The Cyber Innovation Hub has been funded by the Welsh Government and Cardiff Capital Region with a mission to transform the Cardiff Capital Region into one of the UK’s leading cyber security clusters by 2030. One of our objectives is to create more than 25 high-growth companies and, working closely with our industrial partners, this challenge programme is our key way of achieving that objective. We aim to work with businesses and the public sector to pull through market-led innovation challenges – then drive rapid development of new, innovative solutions. The objective is that these will be tightly tailored to industry demand and attractive to private equity investors.
We’ll match-make challenge responders with entrepreneurs in the Alacrity Foundation’s incubation programme, building a team around the challenge responder, and providing them with support and services to scale quickly. Teams will have access to internationally recognised researchers at Cardiff University. These researchers have experience of generating and validating cyber security solutions on world-class testbeds. Teams will also have co-working space at Tramshed Tech – alongside existing cyber and digital SMEs. The overall aim is for these teams to become new businesses at the end of the 12-month programme.
We are pleased to launch our very first challenge. We are seeking innovators with potential solutions to the challenges identified below.
We are looking to identify, develop and demonstrate innovative solutions in the areas outlined below. The challenge areas have been chosen to broadly align with challenges identified by the National Cyber Security Centre as ongoing dialogue suggests they are important to our industry partners. We would ask you to think about the challenges and how you might solve a specific problem related to these areas. The challenge areas are as follows:
We are looking for ideas to address the cyber security challenge areas noted above.
| Challenge call launched | Friday 3 March 2023 |
| Online briefing event | Thursday 23 March 2023, 1400-1500 UK-time. |
| Challenge call closes | 12 noon (BST) on 24 April 2023 |
| Applicants notified | 1 May 2023 |
| Projects commence | June 2023 |
| Projects end | June 2024 |
* Please note dates are subject to change *
To respond to the Call for Action, please use the form linked below. Responders have the option of responding using the text form or uploading a five-minute video that outlines their proposal. A set of guidance notes to help responders has been developed as is available here.
https://forms.office.com/e/y2pKx8X4zk
In any of the projects, we need ideas that can be rapidly developed and tested with the potential to be scaled and used across the UK over the coming months.
Following the closing date, responses will be assessed by a panel of Cyber Innovation Hub partners to determine suitability and potential market viability. If required, interviews with challenge responders may be arranged.
If successful, challenge responders will be invited to join the Cyber Innovation Hub innovation programme. This programme, run by the Alacrity Foundation in Newport, will partner you with a team with the aim of creating a viable business with a market-ready solution. The incubation programme is 12 months in duration and you will be expected to be located in the Cardiff region whilst you are on the programme. To assist with costs, a stipend of £1,500 per month is offered. The programme will guide you through ideation, product development and testing, marketing and revenue generation.
Throughout the programme you will have access to research expertise at Cardiff University, the incubator experience of the Alacrity Foundation and have access to the wider tech ecosystem through TramShed Tech. Teams will be able to access physical space at TramShed Tech and the Alacrity Foundation. The Cyber Innovation Hub is also in the process of designing and implementing cyber security testbeds in the innovative Sbarc|Spark building. Throughout the programme you will also have support from our industry partners to ensure that market viability is at the forefront of development.
An online briefing event will be held on Thursday 23 March at 1400-1500 UK-time. To register for the briefing event, please contact cyberinnovationhub@cardiff.ac.
For any enquiries about this challenge please e-mail: cyberinnovationhub@cardiff.ac.uk
Download PDF: Evaluation criteria