• Swindon & Wiltshire News
• Monday October 18 2021
• Author Name: Peter Davison

UK’s first industry-led Cyber Centre will open in Chippenham in Spring 2022

The UK’s first industry-led Cyber Centre will open in Chippenham early next year, it has been confirmed.

Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership‘s 21,000 sq ft Business Cyber Centre will open  at Greenways Business Park, backed with £3.7 million of government funding.

It will create 250 jobs and 1,700 training opportunities in the UK cyber sector, and will act as a base for SMEs to scale up in the £5 billion a year UK cyber market.

The Centre will provide a range of services ranging from virtual cyber training to security awareness for cyber-SMEs and micro-businesses, through to specialist courses and cyber career employment opportunities for both young adults, mature learners, and existing cyber professionals and freelancers.

It will also provide high quality conferencing facilities for up to 140 people and specialist cyber training for up to 60 people at any one time.

And it will be home to the Swindon and Wiltshire Cyber Cluster and will facilitate exclusive networking and contract opportunities for cyber professionals.

The project has been developed with partners from government, the business world, and academia, including the University of Bath, Defence Digital, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; Nationwide; Zurich; and the Western Gateway.

The project will also benefit from, and support civilian spinouts from, military facilities at MOD Corsham – home to the military’s Global Operations Security Control Centre, the Joint Security Co-ordination Centre, and Joint Forces Command’s Information Systems and Services – and Bulford, home to 4 Military Intelligence.

Paddy Bradley, CEO of Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “We are an innovative organisation and we’re transforming the future of UK business by making cyber security a catalyst for growth.

“We are delighted to be able to mobilise these services with the support of government funding”.

SWLEP board director Andrew Gudgeon said “I have been involved in UK cyber since its formal inception in 2005. In all that time there have been a number of landmark milestones delivered to make the UK: the safest place in the world to conduct business in cyberspace.

“This is the first time everyday UK businesses have established their foothold in mutually assuring security and providing the confidence for enterprise to operate across digital pathways.”

Neil O’Brien MP, Minister for Levelling Up, said: “I’m thrilled that £3.7 million of funding from the Getting Building Fund has helped launch a new Business Cyber Centre at Greenways Business Park.

“By investing in ambitious local projects like this, we’re levelling up towns and cities, boosting local economies and helping them to build back better from the pandemic.””

Julia Lopez, Minister for Media, Data, and Digital Infrastructure, said: “The UK is a global leader in tech and this new Business Cyber Centre in Chippenham will help create jobs and drive innovation.

“We’ve invested £700,000 to help cyber security businesses tackle barriers to growth and boost digital skills so people across the country can benefit from this golden age in UK tech.”

Cyber security organisations are being invited to register at www.bcc.co.uk so that they can become part of a cohort to test out products and services before the centre goes live early next year.