The hope is these innovators will help solve issues surrounding technical solutions as identified by industry leaders earlier this month at the cyber innovation centre.
LORCA is now looking for applications from scaling companies with promising responses to the two biggest cybersecurity challenge areas.
The first of these challenges is to develop solutions that make it easier for employees to keep cyber-aware and safe. Key figures in the sector identified that cybersecurity often fails to account for the human element of attacks and breaches, when ultimately people are at the heart of all activity. Therefore, there is a significant need for new technologies that train employees to become cybersecurity assets, rather than risks.
The second challenge identified concerns supply chains. As these – and the data that flows through them – become increasingly complex, there’s a growing need for new technologies to help better manage the cybersecurity risk in an effective, scalable, and sustainable way, says LORCA.
Those accepted onto the programme will receive a year of support to engineer and iterate their solution and scale their businesses quickly –all within a dedicated space at LORCA’s base at innovation hub Plexal.
Participating companies will be given the opportunity to be supported by experts, including one-to-one commercial and technical support from Deloitte’s Cyber Risk Service team. Academic and engineering support will be provided by the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University Belfast. Moreover, Plexal will look to provide innovation support, curate professional service providers, and convene a wider community of interest to drive up solutions from different sector verticals.
Applications from across the UK and beyond are welcome, says LORCA. Organisations will need to be revenue generating, be UK registered, have a commitment to grow their business in the UK, and provide a clear solution to one of the two industry challenges. Interested organisations are invited to apply by November 2. Shortlisted organisations will then be invited to meet the selection panel in early December and the cohort 2 programme will commence in early January 2019. The full selection criteria and expression of interest are available on LORCA’s website: www.lorca.co.uk/get-involved/membership/how-to-apply/.