Centre for Digital Innovation (CDI)

The CDI project is supporting SMEs in the region to develop their security capabilities and to prepare for a digital future.

Make an enquiry
Centre for Digital Innovation project brand image.
Centre for Digital Innovation project logos

Centre for Digital Innovation

The Centre for Digital Innovation (CDI) is a supercluster of digital expertise and innovation. The fully funded programme is a partnership of universities, further education and industry partners making digital technology expertise and facilities available to businesses in the North West of England.

Find out more about the full project.

The CDI project covers four digital strands:

Artificial Intelligence | Cyber Security | Industrial Digitalisation | Immersive technology

The project is funded through the nationwide £100m Government Innovation Accelerator. The partnership between Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Manchester, University of Salford, Lancaster University, the Greater Manchester Colleges Group, and industry partners will:

  • Provide access expert knowledge, research and facilities
  • Build on innovations to help businesses develop new products and technologies
  • Create new supply chains
  • Build collaborations
  • Up skill the region's workforce

Explore our upcoming workshops.

Helping to prepare a digital future

Lancaster University is supporting SMEs in the region to develop their security capabilities and to prepare for a digital future. Providing expertise in artificial intelligence, cyber security, immersive technologies and industrial digitalisation, businesses will benefit from the knowledge, technical support and state of the art facilities at Lancaster University to deliver products, services and projects. Lancaster University will foster collaboration between academic researchers in the Security and Protection Sciences Institute and businesses to equip them with the tools, specialist expertise and opportunities to grow and realise their digital innovation ambitions. In addition to engaging with businesses, the University also supports students through paid internships to provide them with practical skills and experience as they embark on their careers.

Register your interest

Upcoming Workshops

Cyber Resilience Workshops:

Through our Cyber Resilience workshops our mission is to empower businesses to embrace digital and cyber innovation, and help to drive tangible improvements in products, processes, services through innovative business strategies.

Implementing cyber resilience can help businesses to strengthen their defences and secure their operations against potential threats and grow their business with confidence.

Tuesday 28th January - Lancaster University

Master's by Research

A Master's by Research degree is for those who want the chance to carry out their own in-depth research project. This can offer an excellent grounding for continuing to PhD study and provide the foundations for developing expertise in special fields leading to careers in the public and private sectors.

The CDI has connections with Small to Medium Enterprises in a variety of different sectors, enrolling for a Master's by Research allows you to immerse yourself within a company carrying out research that will have a real world impact. You will receive the kind of specific skills training you need to be able to fully investigate your subject and will conduct innovative, original research, culminating in a written up thesis.

You will be considered a member of the School of Engineering at the University for the entirety of your research with provision for site visits and options to work closely with the company that shares your research vision.

The MSc by Research Studentship is for a duration of 1 year, full-time and comes with a tax-free stipend of £18,622 per annum (as of academic year 2023/24), along with coverage for domestic (UK) tuition fee rate.

To find out what our network of SMEs are researching and if they align to your research interests please feel free to contact us at the email listed at the end of this paragraph. If you find or have a topic in mind that you'd want to apply for send your CV and covering letter to cyberfoundry@lancaster.ac.uk.

KnowDigital Training Platform

Welcome to CDI's KnowDigital training platform. As part of the assistance provided by the CDI project to businesses, teams, and individuals a fully comprehensive digital skills learning platform can be accessed. Whether the aim is to advance careers, grow businesses, or empower teams KnowDigital offers a wealth of resources and expert guidance tailored to meet your needs.

KnowDigital Page

Meet the CDI Team

  • Professor Allan Rennie

    Allan Rennie, Professor in Manufacturing Engineering is the CDI academic lead at Lancaster University. His current research focusses on design for additive manufacturing, industrial digitalisation of manufacturing processes, tooling and manufacturing process development and optimisation. Allan also co-leads the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) Network.

  • Dr Rebecca Robinson

    Dr Rebecca Robinson is the CDI Programme Lead at Lancaster University. She holds a PhD in Electrophysiology for Evoked Potentials and has held numerous programme lead roles in higher education and healthcare. In her current role, Rebecca provides businesses with access to cutting-edge technical expertise and innovative solutions to address the challenges they face around AI, cyber security, industrial digitalisation and immersive technology.

  • Zaffar Mughal

    Zaffar Mughal is the CDI Technical Manager at Lancaster University and is based in Research and Enterprise Services. He has worked on various projects including ‘Invest or Defend’, an educational online game designed to teach the principles and value of quantitative information security risk calculation.

  • Sam Walsh

    Sam Walsh is the CDI Project Engineer at Lancaster University and is based in Research and Enterprise Services. He has contributed to numerous research projects and has participated in international conferences on connected digital manufacturing and additive manufacturing.

Working on CDI

We are delighted to contribute to the CDI project and showcase our extensive expertise to support SMEs to fully embed security capabilities into their strategies. We will help businesses put security at the heart of what they do ensuring the safety and security of their business growth.

Cyber Works logo

Discover more support

Cyber Works enables effective, impactful and innovative opportunities for knowledge exchange between businesses and the Cyber Security Research Centre (CSRC) based at Lancaster University.

We help to link business to our rich vibrant community of multidisciplinary researchers and we provide a range of options and avenues of support. Through exchanging knowledge, building key partnerships and using research, we help companies to defend, innovate and grow.

Cyber Works