MoD calls on academics, industry and inventors to pitch cyber security ideas

The Ministry of Defence is calling for innovative solutions from academia and industry to protect and secure UK interests in cyberspace.

From 1 November to 8 December, the MoD's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) is inviting research proposals regarding cyber spectrum, cyber challenges and cyber influence.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) is looking for innovative spectrum defence technologies or techniques to ensure wireless-enabled cyber systems survive a hostile electromagnetic environment.

In the second area of interest, the DSTL is seeking ways to understand the future cyber environment and improve supply chain security, cyber situational awareness and cyber networks defence.

In the area of cyber influence, the DSTL is looking for research proposals on social media monitoring and analysis, online and offline behaviours, cyber-ethnography, and novel approaches to the dynamics of personality, leadership, trust and emotion in online settings.

The DSTL's Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) is a gateway to the MoD from the wider world including academia, industry and independent inventors to help provide a rapid response and support to anyone with innovative ideas that can help defence.

The DSTL's Cyber and Influence Science and Technology Centre (C&I STC) supports the implementation of the National Security Strategy across defence as well as working across government to address the capabilities needed to secure the UK's broader interests in cyberspace. Its goal is to deliver the capabilities needed by the MoD to train, exercise, rehearse and conduct military operations in cyberspace in the same way it does in the physical world.

Dario Leslie, the C&I STC domain leader, says he hopes industry and academia will step up to this latest challenge.

"Cyber technologies are constantly evolving and it's crucial for the UK's armed forces to keep abreast of these developments. We hope innovators will respond to this call and bring some interesting ideas to the table," Leslie said.