CyberGrowth
CyberGrowth: Turning UK Cyber Strategy into action
CyberGrowth built directly on the success of our CyberSprint programme – seamlessly moving us forward from skills ecosystem design into hands‑on support for East Midlands small businesses.
Shaping a secure digital future
Funded with £150,000 through DSIT’s Cyber Local scheme, CyberGrowth was delivered by East Midlands Cyber Security Cluster in partnership with De Montfort University.
Where CyberSprint focused on education pathways and future workforce, CyberGrowth concentrated on the here‑and‑now resilience of SMEs – with particular focus on core regional sectors including manufacturing, logistics and professional services.
It achieved this by translating national cyber policy into practical, proportionate action and insight that smaller organisations could realistically sustain.
Place‑based SME resilience
CyberGrowth was designed as a practical test of how regional ecosystems can turn national ambition into organisational change.
The programme combined four connected workstreams:
- Cyber Resilience Incubator was a workshop for 15 small businesses covering cyber governance and leadership
- Cyber Workforce Accelerator brought 10 small businesses together across 4 workshops focused on skills and roles
- Cyber Resilience Enterprise provided 100 hours of academic consultancy for 5 growing East Midlands SMEs
- East Midlands CyberGrowth Summit was our regional convening mechanism for more than 100 industry and small business delegates.
The integrated CyberGrowth model allowed SMEs to enter at different points while still progressing through a coherent pathway. It meant that policy‑aligned content was translated into SME‑ready templates, diagnostics, and exercises.
In EMCSC and DMU, small businesses had access to trusted intermediaries in central locations as we reduced participation friction and built confidence.
Over-subscribed workstreams
Registrations were strong across all workstreams. At least 20 businesses registered for each strand and the inaugural East Midlands Cyber Summit was more than 50% oversubscribed.
Evaluation evidence gathered during contacts showed low baseline awareness of national cyber guidance, coupled with high demand for practical translation, templates and guided implementation.
Where SMEs engaged, CyberGrowth generated clear early signals: better understanding of Government frameworks, reframing cyber as a leadership issue, clearer ownership of risk, and initiation of governance and workforce planning artefacts.
Meanwhile, academic consultancy projects helped participating firms move from intent to implementation, including Cyber Essentials‑aligned readiness work and tailored improvement plans to address issues as diverse as developing backup systems and reducing the carbon footprint of data storage.
A scalable regional platform
CyberGrowth created a repeatable regional delivery capability that narrowed the gap between national strategy and local practice.
It showed that continuity of funding remains critical: the region loses trusted engagement routes, progression pathways, and institutional learning about regional SME cyber as delivery is paused.
CyberGrowth positioned the East Midlands as a national testbed for place‑based cyber delivery. It created an action plan ready to scale across the Midlands and align with wider technology and growth priorities.
The programme provides a template for clusters to integrate governance, workforce and innovation support – showing SMEs why cyber is not a niche IT issue but a foundational business capability.
Join East Midlands CyberGrowth
From fully funded workshops to our flagship East Midlands Cyber Summit, registering for CyberGrowth is your first step towards safeguarding the digital security of your East Midlands small business.