Government offers £4m to cybercrime-fighting firms

Innovate UK to co-fund research and development projects to tackle cybercrime

The government is offering £4m to businesses to fund research and development projects designed to bolster the country's cybersecurity.

Innovate UK – a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – claims cybersecurity breaches can cost UK companies millions of pounds and "far-reaching" brand damage.

As such, it has promised to cough up £4m to co-fund research and development projects which tackle the "growing risks" of disruption to internet-enabled business 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," the authority said.

Businesses whose proposals are successful will attract up to 50 per cent funding from Innovate UK to carry out the research, a figure which rises to 60 per cent for SMBs.
Successful projects should last between one and two years and should cost between £75,000 and £150,000 in total, the government said.