Plexal is working on the business case for the first Scottish Cyber Security Innovation Hub

Plexal has been awarded the contract to create the business case and strategy for the first Scottish Cyber Security Innovation Hub following funding from Scottish Enterprise.

ScotlandIS Cyber is leading the initiative, which is aimed at creating jobs and placing cyber resilience at the core of Scotland’s digital transformation plans.

The business case development is being supported by an advisory group which comprises a team of experts, including:

  • Edinburgh Napier University’s professor Bill Buchanan
  • Peter Jaco, cyber investor and entrepreneur
  • Matt Little, former CTO of Zonefox
  • Jamie Graves, former CEO of Zonefox
  • Representatives from Edinburgh Innovations, The Data Lab, CENSIS, Edinburgh University, Abertay University and more

The hub will help early-stage cyber startups grow their businesses and connect with potential new partners, collaborators and investors. They will also benefit from business guidance and professional learning opportunities.

Ciara Mitchell, cluster manager for Scotland’s Cyber Cluster at ScotlandIS, said: “COVID-19 has caused a significant shift in the scale and speed of digital adoption which presents us with a whole new set of cyber challenges and opportunities. Approximately 10 new cyber companies are being launched in Scotland each year and it’s vital that we ensure that the necessary resources and support are available to help them flourish.

“We also have a well-recognised and growing focus on cyber research and education across numerous universities with the number of students in this field growing each year as well as the number of PhDs. It is important to support the commercialisation of the increased number of spinouts generated from this growing volume of PhDs.”

Saj Huq, director of innovation at Plexal, said: “Cyber innovation is thriving across the UK and Plexal’s excited to unlock the entrepreneurial, engineering and academic excellence that already exists in Scotland to accelerate the growth of its cybersecurity innovation ecosystem.

“We will be exploring how a cyber innovation hub in Scotland can be more closely linked with similar clusters in Cheltenham, Manchester, London and many more so innovators can access all the investment, connections and opportunities that they need to grow.”

A number of industry partners have already come on board to show their support for the cyber innovation hub such as Cisco, Accenture, Iomart, Barrier Networks, NCC Group, Leonardo and more.