Contracts for Innovation: Cyber scale in critical sectors

Overview

The Contracts for Innovation: Cyber scale in critical sectors competition is designed to accelerate the growth of cyber security companies by enabling them to test and validate their solutions in real operational environments.

Unlike traditional grants, this programme offers procurement contracts, allowing organisations to work directly with end users in critical sectors. This provides a unique opportunity to demonstrate real-world impact, strengthen commercial readiness and establish early customer relationships.

The competition is particularly focused on solutions that are already at Technology Readiness Level 7 and can progress to full deployment, helping organisations bridge the gap between innovation and market adoption.

Scope of the Competition

Projects must focus on addressing cyber security challenges within critical sectors and demonstrate solutions in live environments.

Your project must:

• Deploy and operate a cyber security solution in a real operational setting
• Achieve Technology Readiness Level 8 or above by project completion
• Demonstrate user acceptance and clear market fit
• Refine the solution based on feedback from end users
• Deliver a comprehensive business plan and commercialisation strategy

Projects are expected to work closely with end users, ensuring solutions are practical, scalable and aligned with industry needs.

Key Focus Areas

Projects must address one or more of the following cyber security challenges:

• Proactive defence of Critical National Infrastructure systems
• Detection and removal of sophisticated cyber threats
• Advanced threat hunting capabilities
• Addressing vulnerabilities in legacy systems

Solutions must also target one of the key critical sectors, including energy, health, transport, communications and other essential industries.