Several technology businesses will join the Made Smarter Innovation Digital Supply Chain Hub programme to apply deep tech solutions to bolster the resilience of national supply chains, Digital Catapult has announced.
Each company will receive funding of up to £150,000 to address one of three supply-chain challenges in cybersecurity, carbon management and data governance, with a view to strengthening UK industry.
The new initiative will build on the Digital Supply Chain Hub, a programme designed to make UK supply chains more efficient, resilient and sustainable, which has reportedly enabled more than 40 startups and SMEs to secure more than £3 million in funding.
The participating companies, which include Orpheus Cyber and Farm Carbon Toolkit, will accelerate the practical application of deep tech in response to demand from industry, and concerns around future supply-chain disruptions such as cyberattacks, outages and regulatory hurdles.
Orpheus Cyber will look to identify cyber-vulnerabilities and security breaches that could leave supply chains open to cyberattacks, using data to effectively mitigate risks.
By further enhancing its capabilities and working with technical experts from the Digital Supply Chain Hub, Orpheus Cyber will be able to identify vulnerabilities within a supply chain, revealing exposure to data leaks both within an organisation’s own operations and throughout its supply-chain network.
Farm Carbon Toolkit, a farmer-led enterprise, will join the programme to enhance carbon sequestration, a process that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through absorption into the soil.
The Digital Supply Chain Hub’s food testbed, which includes Contained Technologies and Lincolnshire Field Products, will partner with Farm Carbon Toolkit to achieve this with a view to developing secure digital tools and services for the fresh and perishable market.
The new programme comes as supply-chain leaders and businesses across the UK face regulatory hurdles, pressure to decarbonise, and cyber-threats to their supply chain.
Research has found that almost three quarters (74%) of UK IT decision-makers received notifications of an attack or vulnerability in their supply chain software last year, demonstrating the need for increased collaboration between businesses and technology leaders to mitigate this risk.
Tim Lawrence, director of the Digital Supply Chain Hub, said: “Supply-chain leaders across the country are facing an array of unprecedented challenges.
“So, collaboration between industry and technology pioneers is becoming ever more important to strengthening key sectors’ supply chains and achieving environmental gains for businesses of all sizes.
“The application of deep tech solutions underpins this transformation, and the support from this programme will undoubtedly provide these companies with the tools they need to develop solutions to advance industrial sustainability and resilience.”
Keep an eye out for more coverage of cybersecurity, including the recent CrowdStrike IT outage, in the September issue of Logistics Manager!
