Worcestershire businesses are being made aware of a new competition from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

UK registered SMEs can apply for a share of up to £1.5 million for fast-start short-term projects. Funding is to investigate requirements for adoption of Digital Security by Design (DSbD) technologies across the software development ecosystem.

The challenge will:

• increase cyber security for businesses, government and the wider public and economy
• increase productivity for the UK through reduction of days lost to cyber-attacks
• make the UK a market leader through new capabilities fostering the trust that is necessary for successful adoption of future digital services in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT)

The challenge is being delivered through a £70 million programme funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund that is matched by industry funding of over £117 million.

The criteria for entering the competition:

1. Total project eligible costs must be between £40k-£80k.
2. The project duration will be up to 6 months
3. The competition will open for entries on: 30th November 2020
4. Entries will close on: 13th January 2021

Businesses are invited to join a competition briefing event taking place on 27th November from 11am-1pm.

Interested organisations can register for this briefing on the link here – https://ktn-uk.org/events/iscf-digital-security-by-design-dsbd-software-ecosystem-competition-briefing-event/ 

For more information on the challenge fund and applying for the scheme, speak with the Worcestershire Business Central team by emailing info@worcestershiregrowthhub.co.uk or phoning 01905 677 888