Dr Ismini Vasileiou will lead a high-level strategic roundtable at the UK Global R&D and Science Investment Summit. 

The session titled “Beyond Policy to Place: Building the Delivery Infrastructure for Cyber Resilient Growth”, aims to bring a sharper focus to one of the most pressing challenges in the UK’s innovation landscape –  the “missing middle” between national strategy and local impact.

The Summit is being held as part of London Tech Week and is taking place at the Royal Society in London on 8-9 June. 

While the Summit explores how policy translates into place, this roundtable moves further – examining how place-based delivery mechanisms convert policy into measurable organisational capability. 

The discussion on June 9 will focus on how cyber, digital, and industrial strategies can be operationalised to strengthen SME resilience, develop workforce capability, and drive regional growth.

Ahead of the event, Dr Vasileiou, an associate professor at DMU, said: “We have strong national strategies in place, but the real challenge lies in how these translate into tangible capability for organisations on the ground. This roundtable is about addressing that gap – bringing together the right voices to define what effective delivery infrastructure looks like and how we ensure cyber resilience is embedded across regions, sectors, and SMEs.”

The session builds directly on De Montfort University (DMU) and the East Midlands Cyber Security Cluster’s (EMCSC) DSIT-funded work, which has been submitted to the Cabinet Office as an impact case linked to the UK’s wider industrial strategy. It also aligns strongly with the Summit’s broader themes of investment, regional innovation, and digital technologies.

Designed as a two-hour, invitation-only roundtable, the session will convene around 20 senior stakeholders, including representatives from government, industry, SMEs, regional delivery bodies, skills organisations, and Parliament. Drawing on established stakeholder relationships from previous parliamentary roundtables, the session aims to maximise both engagement and impact with structured discussion.

The focus will be on what a national-to-regional cyber resilience delivery model should look like, priority recommendations and next steps while considering what infrastructure is needed to ensure national cyber and digital policy becomes real organisational capability at grassroots level.