GCHQ Accelerator Programme

Intelligence agency launches mentorship scheme to help SMEs kick-start their growth with the use of machine learning, AI and data science.

08:45 08 July 2020

GCHQ has recently launched a scheme that aims to help small to medium-sized enterprises boost their businesses with the use of machine learning, artificial intelligence and data science. The intelligence agency's Innovation Co-Lab has partnered with governments, investors, start-ups and brands to provide a series of masterclasses that will help SMEs advance business success and stakeholder value. 

 

Located at The Landing, an entrepreneurial technology hub at MediaCityUK in Manchester, the Innovation Co-Lab will commence on 31 August. Online sessions will focus on providing expertise on cyber intelligence and security to enhance the safety of company platforms, such as reducing the risk of fraud and protecting children online.

 

Emer Coleman, project director at UP Ventures, said: "We will all be collaborating together bringing expertise from the commercial world and also from the technology space itself, from finance, looking at business models, business growth, marketing, narrative strategy. GCHQ will be looking at that specifically from a technology perspective." 

 

Companies with minimum viable product ready to test or pilot are encouraged to apply for the programme. Coleman added: "The public sector needs innovation more than ever now because they have such limited resources and such pressures." 

 

"GCHQ really wanted to respond to the 'now' of Covid. We wanted to do something that would be more agile. Critical sectors such as health, education, emergency services and communications rely heavily on data integrity, on which, increasingly, vital machine learning is based. This can only become more important in the future as citizens and businesses across the globe adjust to living with Covid-19."