U.K. to establish new innovation center for cybersecurity technology development

The new center in London will provide opportunities for collaboration between large firms and startups, as well as other services.

The United Kingdom will invest up to $19 million over the next three years in an innovation center aimed at building up the country’s cybersecurity personnel and technology.

According to the U.K. government, the new center in London will provide opportunities for collaboration between large firms and startups in cybersecurity technology development. The center will also offer technical mentoring, business support and advice for companies advancing the U.K. cybersecurity sector, which is estimated to be worth about $29 billion annually.

“As a government, we want to support entrepreneurs and innovators every step of the way from the initial first idea to setting up a company to developing the prototype and the product and becoming a leading player in cyber across the world,” U.K. Minister of Digital Matt Hancock said in a video accompanying the government’s statement.

The center will be developed and designed by the winner of a competition sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It will be the second of its kind, following the opening of an innovation center in Cheltenham earlier this year, and will share London with the GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre.

London, according to Hancock, has a new cybersecurity firm established every hour and $7.3 billion invested in the technology industry in just the last six months. London will also be home to research projects over the next three years examining “how society can benefit from the power of interconnected devices while remaining safe, secure and resilient,” according to the government, under a $33 million national investment funded by the PETRAS Research Hub, Government-funded Internet-of-Things research and other industry and public sector organizations.

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