North West Cyber Corridor Innovation Impact Study

This research explores the assets, initiatives, and potential of the North West Cyber Corridor ecosystem

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Key Highlights

  • The Northwest hosts the second largest cyber cluster in the UK with the second largest levels of investment (London and South-East being number 1).
  • The Northwest has a well-established cyber ecosystem and has become a ‘destination of choice’ for a number of related large private and public secor organisations, including: Raytheon, BAE (AI), Northrop Grumann Deloitte, PWC, KPMG, Sophos Darktrace, AON, GCHQ, NCF.
  • The NW has ~300 unique cyber security companies: 23% are large, 12% medium, 24% small, and 41% micro;
  • There are currently c.12,000 FTEs working in cyber security in the NW generating £760M in Gross Value Added (GVA) each year. Estimates suggest the region should be aiming to grow this to at least 30,000 FTEs by 2035 - unlocking unlock up to £2.7Bn GVA per annum.
  • The NW is cited as the ‘heart of the UK’s national defence and security ecosystem’ sustaining c.35,000 related jobs across the region;

Business Landscape and Assets

The North West has approximately 300 unique cyber security companies, making it one of the UK’s leading regions in cyber. There is strong complementarity between the region’s cyber capabilities and other sectors, including aerospace and defence, energy and nuclear, finance, and professional services, and manufacturing.

There are also over 150 public, defence, and research assets identified across the North West (e.g. business clusters in Greater Manchester (GM), research excellence in Lancaster, upcoming National Cyber Force (NCF) / innovation in Samlesbury, cyber degree apprenticeships in Sellafield, High Performance Computing (HPC) capabilities in Hartree Centre at Daresbury etc, Smart Cities in Liverpool City Region (LCR) etc).

52% of cyber security companies are ‘pure-play’ (i.e. only provide cyber security e.g. NCC Group, Darktrace, Avecto, WithSecure, ProofID, Secarma), and 48% are ‘diversified’ and offer products and services across several verticals. This is much higher than the UK study (28% diversified) which highlights how strongly cyber security capabilities are embedded within broader sectors in the North West (e.g. with providers such as BAE Systems, BT, Cisco, Deloitte, PwC, Accenture, Ericsson, Thales, Capgemini, ARM, Raytheon). Over a third of cyber security employers are either large (250+ staff) or medium (50+ staff). This suggests opportunity to build the skills pipeline through entry-level pathways into cyber among key employers, including the NCF and NCSC.

Economic Potential

We estimate there are currently c. 12,000 FTEs (across all sectors) working in cyber security in the North West (generating over £550m in annual salaries, and £760m in GVA each year). Growth estimates suggest the region should be aiming to grow the cyber security ecosystem with c. 30,000 FTEs by 2035. Achieving this could unlock up to £2.7bn per annum in Gross Value Added for the North West economy, and could cumulatively generate £22.4bn in GVA for the North West between 2022 – 2035.

Skills

The region contains 10 HEIs offering cyber security and related courses, placing it as a top region for skills provision. The number of graduates in the region in cyber and computer science is growing by c. 15% per annum, with more than 3,400 graduates in 2020/21. However, there is a need for skills and workforce planning across the region identified by the study, that suggests the region should increase its training provision in cyber related courses and initiatives by at least 1,000 people per annum to meet the growth scenarios.

North West Cyber Corridor Innovation Impact Study

This research explores the assets, initiatives, and potential of the North West Cyber Corridor ecosystem.

Download Report