News story

Data security: £4 million funding to prevent digital disruption

Cyber security breaches can cost a small company thousands and a large firm millions. Could your business help solve the problem?

An image of map of the world combined with patterns of data

Cyber security breaches can severely damage a company's brand and reputation

There are also indirect costs like loss of business and damage to brand reputation – which can have far-reaching consequences.

Innovate UK is to invest up to £4 million in collaborative research and development (R&D) projects that tackle the growing risks of disruption to internet-enabled businesses and their digital supply chains.

We want to identify and fund industrial research that will strengthen the protection and resilience of such data, so businesses and the public can have confidence in the delivery of digitally enabled business products and services.

Proposals must be collaborative and business-led. We expect to fund mainly industrial research projects in which a business partner will generally attract up to 50% public funding for their project costs (60% for SMEs).

Competition information

  • the competition opens on 23 March 2015
  • the deadline for registration is midday on 29 April 2015
  • there will be briefing events for potential applicants in:
    • Belfast on 25 March 2015
    • Cardiff on 30 March 2015
    • London on 31 March 2015
    • Edinburgh on 1 April 2015
  • we expect projects to last between 1 and 2 years and to range in size from total costs of £150,000 to £750,000
Published 11 February 2015