Cyber Local 2025-2026

This competition is open to single applicants and collaborations. To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• research and technology organisation (RTO)
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• demonstrate how its operations and involvement in the project will benefit the geographical area

Number of applications
A business of any size, academic institution, charity, not-for-profit, public sector organisation or research and technology organisation (RTO) can lead one application and can also be included as a collaborator in any number of applications.

If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request between £25,000 and £150,000
• last between three months and six months
• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• not start before 1 September 2025
• end by 31 March 2026
• have endorsement of your area steering group

To obtain an endorsement please submit an Expression of Interest by completing the provided online form by midnight Friday 14 March.

To ensure that proposed projects address the specific needs of the area in which they will be delivered, we require applicants to secure the endorsement of their local steering group before they are formally assessed by Innovate UK.

Steering groups will not be asked to complete a full assessment on applications but rather consider how well the proposed projects align with the priorities of their local cyber ecosystem. The steering groups will not be limited in the amount of applications they can choose to endorse.

Steering Groups will be representative of their local cyber ecosystem. Membership of steering groups will vary across each region but may include representatives from government, academia and industry. This may include further and higher education institutions, cyber clusters, cyber businesses and business representative organisations.

Before submitting your application, you need to prove the endorsement of your local steering group. For that, please submit an Expression of Interest to the local steering group by completing the online form by midnight Friday 14 March. 

The endorsement of your idea from the steering group will be communicated by Tuesday 1 April.

You must submit the endorsement from your local steering group as an appendix to Question 6 when making your full application.

The aim of this competition is to develop impactful regional activities and events that focus on supporting the growth of the cyber security sector and the development of cyber security skills.
These will be to resolve geographical disparities in the development and growth of the cyber security sector and to reduce the skills gap in the sector.
Your project must:

• be delivered in one of the nine specified geographical areas
• demonstrate clear impact in the cyber security sector of the region through the development of strong and innovative cyber security ecosystems or increasing opportunities for activities to reduce the skills gap in the sector
• have endorsement of your area steering group

Your project can:

• consider self-sustaining mechanisms to continue after the funding period
• consider scalability and how the idea could expand within the area or be replicated elsewhere
• demonstrate collaboration with other local organisations or government bodies to boost reach and impact
• complement or build on and not replicate CyberFirst activities in regions with an active CyberFirst regional partner

We welcome applications that support women into the cyber workforce and initiatives that are aimed at inspiring young girls to consider a technology career.
We also welcome applications that encourage the adoption of Government products, such as Cyber Essentials or the professional titles introduced by the UK Cyber Security Council.

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a variety of projects across different locations. We call this a portfolio approach.

We are prioritising projects that have a presence or are already operating in the geographical area where the project is going to be delivered.

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

• strengthening the local cyber security sector through area partnerships and forging links between industry, public sector and academia
• supporting the development of strong and innovative cyber security ecosystems
• increasing opportunities for local people to pursue a career in cyber security, paying particular attention to underrepresented communities
• cyber security skills for local people or communities to reduce the skills gap
• upskilling underrepresented demographics in the cyber security sector

We are not funding projects that:

• are not in scope for this competition
• do not have clear impact in one or more of the nine specified geographical areas
• do not have an impact or application in cyber security
• duplicate activities of the CyberFirst programme

We cannot fund projects that:

• involve primary production in fishery and aquaculture
• involve primary production in agriculture
• are not allowed under De minimis regulation restrictions
• are not eligible to receive Minimal Financial Assistance
• are dependent on export performance, for example, giving an award to a baker on the condition that they export a certain quantity of bread to another country
• are dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, if we give an award to a baker on the condition that they use 50% UK flour in their product

An online briefing event will be held on Tuesday 18 March. Please register here to attend the online briefing.

Briefing recording and slides will be available to download here after the briefing event.

If you would like to discuss your application or find a project partner, please contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s digital innovation experts.