Cyber Security Academic Startup Accelerator Programme Y9: phase 1

Individuals based in a UK academic institution can apply for a share of up to £800,000 to join the Cyber Security Academic Startup Accelerator Programme (CyberASAP).

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Further details

Summary

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to invest up to £800,000 in innovative cyber security projects coming from an academic research base.

The aim of this competition is to identify the most promising commercial opportunities in academia in respect to cyber security.

Your proposal must include the area of your research, the problem that you are solving and your proposed solution.

The Cyber Security Academic Startup Accelerator Programme (CyberASAP) is an 11 month programme.

This is phase 1 of a potential 2 phase competition.

Phase 1 will last up to four months, split into two stages:

an initial two months for value proposition development activities, followed by a presentation to an independent judging panel who will select teams to go to stage 2
a further two months for market validation activities

Phase 1 will determine the value of the idea and, if appropriate, identify the best commercial route to progress. The programme will be supported by industry experts, including some from cyber security.

This competition has two funding strands for entry:

Strand 1: Industry Challenge-Led strand with the following cross cutting challenges:

National and Emergency Service Infrastructure Security, including:

energy, including networks
transport
telecoms

Operational and supply chain resilience, including:

manufacturing
agriculture
public sector, including local government and healthcare

Harms, including:

metaverse
AI model security
ransomware
quantum

Dual Use, National Security, including:

drones
robotics
IoT
sensors

These lists are not exhaustive.

Strand 2: open strand

Note that although you can select the strand for your project, we will make the final decision which strand is the most appropriate for your application.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £5,000 and £32,000.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 10 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Eligibility

This award has been designed to be provided on a no subsidy basis, as defined in the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

This means to be eligible, the award will not give an economic advantage to one or more organisations, and you must not be acting economically as an organisation within the meaning of the act.

In limited circumstances, EU State aid rules may apply under the Windsor Framework and a ‘No Aid’ award may be given in accordance with the R&D&I Framework.

Your project

Your project must:

have total costs must be between £5000 and £32,000 with £16,000 allocated to stage 1 and £16,000 to stage 2
carry out its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
start on 1 April 2025
end by 31st July 2025

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. The only eligible costs are salaries for those participating in the programme, travel and subsistence to attend organised events.

Lead organisation

To lead a project or work alone you must:

be based in a UK registered academic institution
have a cyber security idea
be interested in the commercialisation of your idea
have the support of your academic institution’s technology transfer office or equivalent
not act in any way to gain selective commercial or economic advantage from the outputs of this project

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead, you must:

be based in a UK academic institution
be interested in the commercialisation of your idea
have the support of your academic institution’s technology transfer office or equivalent

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

All individuals based in a UK academic institution are eligible, including but not limited to early career researchers and senior academic researchers.

The grant will be paid to the academic institutions after each stage of phase 1. Each academic institution in the consortium will be funded individually, but the total funding for all academic partners must be no more than £32,000 for each application.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are not allowed in this competition.

Building value proposition and market validation activities

Participants in phase 1 with ideas that demonstrate the most potential for commercialisation will be invited to apply to participate in phase 2, where funding is available to develop a proof of concept for the product or service.

If we award you funding, you must be dedicated to the project for the two month value proposition building activity from 1 April 2025. If we decide you can continue to the market validation activity you must be dedicated for the additional two months until 31 July 2025.

'Dedicated to the project' means you must:

attend two days of in person events and three days of online events as part of the initial two month value proposition activity
be expected to attend an additional day if you are in the Industry Challenge-Led cohort
be able and permitted to work on your project for at least two days a week in order to make it a success

You will be contacted by Innovate UK Business Connect with full details of events relevant to you, including confirmed dates.

The planned dates for the value proposition stage are:

1 and 2 April 2025: in person value proposition bootcamp
4 April 2025: webinar for Technology Transfer Officers or equivalent
7 and 8 May 2025: online value proposition mid-stage review
2 and 3 June 2025: online value proposition pitch to selection panel, teams must pitch at a slot on one of these two days

Industry Challenge-Led strand participants are expected to attend the additional in person event on 3 April 2025.

Innovate UK Business Connect will hold informal weekly one hour drop-in sessions during the value proposition stage. These will be on Friday mornings from 10am to 11am.

Before the formal start of the programme an informal online introduction session is planned for 25 March 2025. Innovate UK Business Connect will advise all participants of the time in due course.

If selected to undertake the additional two months for market validation, you must commit to attend three days of in person events and two days of online events. In addition the Industry Challenge-Led cohort is expected to attend an additional in person day.

The planned dates are:

3 to 5 June 2025: attend InfoSec at ExCel London: optional
10 and 11 June 2025: in person market validation bootcamp
30 June 2025: online market validation mid-stage review
1 July 2025: online meet the entrepreneur day
29 and 30 July 2025: market validation pitch to selection panel, teams must pitch at a slot on one of these two days (hybrid: in person for teams, and virtual for assessors)

Industry Challenge-Led strand participants are expected to attend the additional in person event on 12 June 2025.

Number of applications

You can submit more than one application if you have multiple ideas, but we will not select more than one for funding.

Sanctions

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal.

If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies.

We will not award you funding if you have:

failed to exploit a previously funded project
an overdue independent accountant’s report
failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects.

No subsidy (and non-aid where applicable)

This competition has been designed to provide funding that is not classed by Innovate UK as a subsidy.

Your eligibility to be given an award on a ‘No Subsidy’ basis will be determined by Innovate UK after you have submitted your application.

You should still seek independent legal advice on what this means for you, before applying.

Further information about the Subsidy Control Act 2022 requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).

It is the responsibility of the lead organisation to make sure all collaborators in the project remain compliant with the ‘No Subsidy’ status they are awarded.

It is important to note that it is the activity that an organisation is engaged in as part of the project, and not its intentions, that define whether any support provided could be considered a subsidy.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 regime you should take independent legal advice. We cannot advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

Funding

Up to £800,000 has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

No more than £16,000 can be allocated to the initial two months of the programme for the stage 1 value proposition building activity.

No more than £16,000 can be allocated to the two months for the stage 2 market validation activity.

Your total eligible project costs will be 100% funded. Total eligible project costs detailed within your application must not exceed the maximum project size. If your total eligible project costs do exceed the maximum then your application will be made ineligible.

Scope

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to identify the most promising commercial opportunities in academia in respect to cyber security.

We define ‘cyber security’ to mean protecting any or all the following from unauthorised access, harm or misuse:

information systems including hardware, software and associated infrastructure
data on information systems
services provided by information systems

This includes harm caused intentionally by the operator of the system, or accidentally, as a result of failing to follow security procedures.

Your proposal must include:

the area of your research
the problem you are solving
your proposed solution
your initial market validation plan

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a variety of projects across different strands and themes. We call this a portfolio approach

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects:

that are not related to cyber security
that are defence focused
from academic institutions outside the UK
that have no intention to commercialise
that have an academic lead that has already led and completed a previous CyberASAP project
which are classed as State aid under EC regulations or a subsidy under the EU-UK TCA
with undertakings which gain a selective economic or commercial advantage from the funding

Dates

20 January 2025

Competition opens

21 January 2025

Online briefing event: watch the recording

Briefing slides are now available to download from Supporting Information.

12 February 2025 11:00am

Competition closes

21 February 2025

Applicants notified

1 April 2025

Project start on

How to apply

Before you start

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:

that all the information provided in the application is correct
your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria
all sections of the application are marked as complete
if collaborative, that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.

What we ask you

The application is split into three sections:

Project details.
Application questions.
Finances

Accessibility and Inclusion

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

1. Project details

This section provides background for your application and is not scored.

Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers.

Application team

If collaborative, decide which academic institutions will work with you on your project and invite them to help complete the application.

Application details

Give your project’s title, start date and duration. Projects must start on 1 April 2025 and last for four months.

Project summary

Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it an innovative cyber security solution.

Your answer can be up to 50 words long.

Public description

Describe your project in detail, and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Scope

Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

2. Application questions

The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 10. You will receive general feedback on your application.

You must answer all questions. Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers.

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored)

You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation and any partners working on your project.

We are collecting this information to understand more about the geographical location of all applicants.

Question 2. Animal testing (not scored)

Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing?

You must select one option:

We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.

Question 3. Permits and licences (not scored)

Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project?

We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date.

You must select one option:

Yes
No
In process of being applied for
Not applicable

Question 4. Select funding strand (not scored)

You must select which funding strand you are applying for:

Industry Challenge-Led: National and Emergency Service Infrastructure security
Industry Challenge-Led: Operational and Supply chain resilience
Industry Challenge-Led: Harms
Industry Challenge-Led: Dual Use: National Security
Open strand

Question 5. Need or challenge

What is the business need, technological challenge or market opportunity behind your innovation?

Explain:

the main motivation for the project
the business need, technological challenge or market opportunity
whether you have identified any similar innovation and its current limitations, including those close to market or in development
any work you have already done to respond to this need, for example, if the project focuses on developing an existing capability or building a new one
the wider economic, social, environmental, cultural or political challenges which are influential in creating the opportunity, such as incoming regulations
how your project supports the National Cyber Strategy 2022

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 6. Approach and innovation

What approach will you take and where will the focus of the innovation be?

Explain:

how you will respond to the need, challenge or opportunity identified
how will you improve on the similar innovation that you have identified
whether the innovation will focus on existing technologies in new areas, the development of new technologies for existing areas or a totally disruptive approach

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 7. Commercialisation

How do you intend to commercialise your idea? Have you got support from your academic institution’s technology transfer office or equivalent?

Describe or explain:

what your approach to commercialisation is
what your academic institution’s approach to intellectual property (IP) and commercialisation is

Confirm that you have got support from your academic institution’s technology transfer office or equivalent and that they will engage with the programme including attending the commercialisation webinar.

In your answer to question 8 you will need to provide their details.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 8. Team and resources (not scored)

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Explain:

the roles, skills and experience of all members of the project team that are relevant to the approach you will be taking
the person responsible for academic commercialisation who supports this application, such as your Technology Transfer Officer or equivalent role, and if possible include their name and contact details
any other people directly or indirectly involved or relevant to the research, their roles, skills and experience
please indicate if anyone from your team has been previously involved in a CyberASAP project in any way, if so, who, when and which project

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 9. Market validation

What is your plan for market validation? Who do you intend to work with?

Explain:

your plan for market validation, including objectives, important milestones and how you will measure the success of the market validation
how you will determine whether your target market likes your product or service, or your concept for a product or service
what evidence there is that the market will be willing to buy your product or service
which companies or organisations you plan to approach to ask for support with your market validation
how you will find the right contacts and whether they will give you the necessary access to continue your market validation

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 10. Costs (not scored)

What are your costs for the four month programme? How are these costs split between the two stages of this competition? Note the only eligible costs are salary, travel and subsistence.

Explain:

the total costs for your involvement in this programme
the salary, travel costs within the UK and subsistence costs required for the programme, that you will incur
how the costs will be split into the value proposition and market validation stages of the programme

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

3. Finances

Each organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application.

You must only include eligible costs in your application. For guidance on eligible costs see the eligibility section. You can also view our application finances video.

Supporting Information

Background and further information

Under the 2022 National Cyber Strategy the UK is taking a new, comprehensive approach to strengthen its position as a responsible and democratic cyber power. This will ensure we are able to protect and promote our interests in and through cyberspace.

This National Cyber Strategy strengthens our cyber security so that we are able to pursue and promote our interests with confidence. It will keep us ahead of our adversaries and strengthen our ability to act in cyberspace, as well as our ability to influence and shape tomorrow’s technologies so they are safe, secure and open.

This includes taking the lead in the technologies vital to cyber power, building our industrial capability and developing frameworks to secure future technologies.

The Cyber Security Academic Startup Accelerator Programme (CyberASAP) aims to increase the amount of academic research being commercialised within UK universities through a bespoke programme of support.

For more details on the programme please go to: www.cyberasap.co.uk or email cyberasap@iukbc.org.uk.

Briefing recording and slides

Recorded briefing event: watch the recording.

Briefing slides are available to download here.

Cyber ASAP Year 9 Phase 1 Applicant Briefing.pdf (opens in a new window)

If your application is successful

If you are successful with this application, you will be asked to set up your project.

You will be notified by email on the date published for this competition. Notifications may be sent any time up to 5pm.

You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your Innovation Funding Service (IFS) Set Up portal, where we gather the information to set up your project.

Watch our video on what steps there are before a project starts.

During the project set up you will be assigned a delivery executive who will guide you through the whole project set up process.

Following your email notification, you will need to provide the following within 5 days (including weekends and bank holidays):

the name and contact details of your project manager and project finance lead
a finance contact for all partners
a copy of your university’s bank details

You will need to provide the following within 30 days (including weekends and bank holidays):

a collaboration agreement, if collaborative
an exploitation plan

You will have 35 days (including weekends and bank holidays) to complete all of your project set up. Within this time, you will also be required to submit:

project location
any answers to financial queries we have requested
any requested documentation to support your project such as a spend profile

In order for us to process your claims, you must make sure your organisation has a valid UK business bank account. It can take several weeks for a new account to be created if required. We recommend starting this process as early as possible to avoid any delays to your project start date.

The bank account which grant is to be paid into must:

be a business account in the same name as the organisation listed in IFS
be from a UK bank regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)
have a cheque and credit clearing facility

Online accounts are eligible as long as they meet the above criteria.

Innovate UK will accept most banking societies apart from:

Viva Wallet
Intesa Sanpaolo
Equals Money UK Limited
Modulr FS Limited

If you have any doubts that your bank account will not meet Innovate UK's funding criteria, you can use the sort code checker. If you input the sort code and find a tick next to the ‘BACS Direct Credit payments can be sent to this sort code’, this will give you an indication that the bank account you hold is acceptable.

Finance checks

You must check your IFS portal regularly and respond to any requests we have sent for additional information to avoid any delays.

If you are not a UK registered organisation or fail to complete project setup this may result in your grant offer being withdrawn.

During our financial due diligence checks you must provide evidence of how you will finance your project costs for the duration of your project. Grant claims are submitted two months in arrears.

Your Grant offer letter (GOL)

Once you have successfully completed project setup, we will issue your GOL.

The GOL will be made available on your IFS portal. You will need to sign and upload this for us to approve. Once approved we will send you an email with permission to start your project on your confirmed start date.

You must not start your project before the date stated on your email and GOL. Any costs incurred before your agreed start date cannot be claimed as part of your grant.

Protecting your innovation

A Secure Innovation campaign has been developed to help founders and leaders of innovative startups protect their technology, competitive advantage, and reputation.

This was developed by UK’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Data sharing

This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) (each an ‘agency’).

Any relevant information submitted and produced during the application process concerning your application can be shared by one agency with the other, for its individual storage, processing and use.

This means that any information given to or generated by Innovate UK in respect of your application may be passed on to DSIT and vice versa. This would include, but is not restricted to:

the information stated on the application, including the personal details of all applicants
scoring and feedback on the application
information received during the management and administration of the grant, such as Monitoring Service Provider reports and Independent Accountant Reports

Innovate UK and DSIT are directly accountable to you for their holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with their own policies. Accordingly, Innovate UK, Innovate UK Business Connect and DSIT will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.

Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy

Innovate UK Business Connect Privacy Policy

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Privacy Policy

Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.

The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.

Contact us

If you need more information about how to apply or you want to submit your application in Welsh, email support@iuk.ukri.org or call 0300 321 4357.

Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Innovate UK or any of our partners will not tolerate abusive language in any written or verbal correspondence, applications, social media or any other form that might affect staff.