Ecosystem Plenary - Cyber in the UK's Industrial Strategy: Breaking Barriers to Growth
Unknown
CYBERUK 2026 · Day 1 · Main Plenary
This plenary session at CYBERUK delves into the critical role of the UK's burgeoning cyber sector within the nation's broader industrial strategy. Featuring a diverse panel of experts from government, venture capital, academia, and pioneering startups, the discussion centers on how to maximize the sector's growth potential while simultaneously bolstering national resilience. The talk explores the inherent tension between treating cybersecurity as a strategic growth engine and its foundational, horizontal role in underpinning the security of all other economic sectors.
AI review
A competent ecosystem panel from CYBERUK that stays firmly in the strategic/policy lane. The strongest moment is Andrew Elliot dropping a concrete, uncomfortable number — SME share of government cyber contract *value* collapsing from 25% to 9% between 2019 and 2023 against a £1.5B spend baseline. That's the kind of specific, attributable, unflattering data point that makes a policy panel worth attending. Everything else is solid but familiar: growth-stage funding gap, procurement friction, culture change, cyber-as-core-infrastructure. The panel has the right people — a DSIT deputy director…