A new European-funded project, led by the University of Southampton, is to bring together established businesses and startups to meet today’s challenges with data.

Data Pitch will provide up to 50 European startups and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with world-class business support including: up to €100k equity free funding, expert mentoring, investment opportunities, and access to data from established businesses and the public sector.

Overall the European Commission has committed €7.1 million into data driven innovation, and €4.8m to directly fund startups and SMEs.

The three-year project will be delivered by the University of Southampton, the Open Data Institute, Portuguese innovation company Beta-i and French data marketplace platform Dawex. It is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Data Pitch is also recruiting established businesses and other organisations to share their data via a new secure data innovation lab, based at the University of Southampton. These businesses will also help define the challenges along with the Data Pitch team and a wide range of experts from across industry sectors including agriculture and health. Startups will be given the chance to use this new data to address the challenges by developing innovative products and services.

Elena Simperl, Professor of Computer Science in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton and Data Pitch Project Director, said: “Data Pitch will create a European ecosystem for data-driven innovation. In the digital age, every organisation, public or private, big or small, generates and owns substantial data assets. Not all them have the opportunity to use this data effectively. With Data Pitch we take an established open innovation model and apply it at European scale – we pair some of the most creative entrepreneurial minds in 28 countries and help them to solve data challenges that matter – for the economy, for the environment, for science, and for society as a whole.â€?

Startups and SMEs will be able to apply for a place on Data Pitch from 1 July 2017. Successful startups will be selected in October and November 2017, and the first cohort will join in December 2017. Each startup will be on the programme for six months.

The ambition is to create an innovation ecosystem for Europe, where larger organisations work closely with agile startups to innovate and learn from each other, using data as an enabler to solve problems.

Data Pitch follows the lead of ODINE, whose 57 successful projects generated €16M in sales and investment since its launch in 2014, and created 268 jobs.

Jeni Tennison, CEO at the ODI said: “Startups have the skills, agility and energy to create novel and innovative solutions using data. Corporates need to understand the benefits of publishing and sharing data to take advantage of this innovation and realise the efficiencies, product opportunities and increased productivity that effective use of data can bring. Data Pitch will allow both corporates and startups to experiment with ways of encouraging open innovation using data in a safe environment.â€?

Data Pitch will begin by running online and offline ‘datathons’ in Spring 2017, around themes including smart cities, health and wellbeing, and food and agriculture. Ideas for the datathons will be crowdsourced and put forward by data providers, bringing together startups, data scientists and experts to work on a case for a set period of time during a hackathon.

The University of Southampton has again been recognised as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR) in the renewal of a Government strategy protecting and promoting the UK in a digital world.

Researchers from the University, led by Professor Vladimiro Sassone from Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), will use the associated funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to support a range of activities that will help make the UK more resilient to cyber attacks.

The renewal of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) ACE-CSR scheme, part of the UK Government’s Cyber Security Strategy, was announced this week by Minister for the Cabinet Office the Rt Hon. Ben Gummer MP.

The University of Southampton was first recognised as an ACE-CSR in 2012 and has consolidated its expertise in the academic discipline by launching a Cyber Security Academy as well as MEng and MSc degrees which have been awarded Provisional Certification as GCHQ-certified Master’s degrees in cyber security. This spring, ECS has also formed a dedicated Cyber Security Research Group to provide a hub for world-leading education and research.

Professor Vladimiro Sassone, Director of the Cyber Security Academy and Roke Manor Research / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair, said: "I'm pleased that Southampton’s tremendous growth in Cyber Security has been recognised and am looking forward with excitement, purpose and commitment to the next five years. Our ambition is to strengthen our offering in both education and research, engaging inside the University while delivering impact at regional and national levels.â€?

The ACE-CSR scheme is sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, the NCSC (which is part of GCHQ), the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance and Research Councils UK. The scheme aims to enhance the quality and scale of academic cyber security research and postgraduate training in the UK, make it easier for potential users to access the best UK research and postgraduate training, and help develop a shared vision and aims among the UK cyber security research community.

Chris Ensor, Deputy Director for Cyber Security Skills and Growth at the NCSC, said: “It’s fantastic to see so many [14] leading universities committed to trailblazing improvements to the UK’s cyber security research. At the NCSC, we are absolutely committed to maintaining and improving our already strong reputation as a global leader in cutting edge research, and look forward to collaborating with these establishments to make the UK the safest place to live and work online. “These universities conduct world class cyber security research and this initiative will improve the way academics, government and business work together – benefiting the whole of the country.â€?

Ben Gummer, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, said: “This Government is determined to make the UK the safest place in the world to live, work and do business online. That is why we need truly ground-breaking research to stay one step ahead of the growing threat of cyber attacks.â€?

“By engaging with business, industry and academia,â€? he added, “we will ensure that we develop the skills and research we need to tackle this growing threat to the UK.â€?

Applied IT research and development at the University has received a huge boost from European funding, after winning eight grants worth over €4m to the University in the Horizon2020 ICT funding call.

The funded projects, which are live and underway, are spearheaded by the IT Innovation Centre - an applied research Centre within Electronics and Computer Science - and support the Centre’s key objective of applying new technologies from the research community to problems in industry, commerce and society.

Below is a list of the projects which are benefitting from the grants:

• DataPitch, led by the Web and Internet Science Group (WAIS) and involving the Institute for Law on the Web (ILAWS), aims to plug the gap in Europe-wide data innovation ecosystems by bringing together data owners and Big Data technology providers with startups and SMEs.
• Fed4FIREplus includes data management tasks developing strategies, risk models and tooling for long-term data preservation.
• Transforming Transport is looking to show how the use of Big Data can significantly increase operational efficiency, improve customer experience and foster new business models.
• RESTASSURED will provide novel mechanisms and cloud architectures for detecting, predicting and preventing data protection violations at run-time.
• The FLAME project is developing an experimental platform that brings together technology, creative sectors and consumers to support the development of media applications and services.
• HUB4FIRE is looking to transform the current Future Internet Research and Experimentation structures into the future FIRE2020 platform in Europe.
• SHiELD, funded under the Secure Societies call, looks at the exchange of health information across and within borders.
• CrowdHEALTH, funded under the Health, Demographic Change and Well-Being call, introduces a new paradigm of Holistic Health Records, capturing clinical, social and human context, allowing for broad-ranging risk analysis and predictions of evolving health risks.

For more information about the IT Innovation Centre and its projects, please visit their website.