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The London Office for Rapid Cybersecurity Advancement (LORCA) has launched an open call for its second cohort of cyber innovators to help solve “the most pressing issues most in need of innovative technical solutions”, as identified by industry leaders earlier this month at the cyber innovation centre.
LORCA is 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.
Those accepted onto the LORCA programme will receive a year of bespoke, world-class 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 (which is based at Here East and has been developed by owner Delancey’s DV4 fund).
Participating companies will be given a unique opportunity to be supported by leading experts, including one-to-one commercial and technical support from Deloitte’s Cyber Risk Service team. World-class academic and engineering support will be provided by the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University Belfast. Plexal will provide innovation support, curate professional service providers and convene a wider community of interest to drive up solutions from different sector verticals.
Lydia Ragoonanan, director of LORCA, said: “As the UK’s dedicated space for industry-led cybersecurity innovation, it was important for us to engage with key figures from industry to make sure we’re addressing their most pressing problems.
“We know there are companies out there with enormous potential to provide solutions to these challenges, and we’re proud to bring together all the elements needed for truly collaborative innovation.”
Applications from across the UK and beyond are welcome. 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 Friday 2nd November. 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/
