National security tech challenges posed to academia and industry in launch of new initiative

We are today launching a new drive to bring industry and academia together to work with us on tech challenges in support of the UK’s national security.

The initiative, in partnership with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), comes as new technologies pose an ever greater challenge to the people and agencies keeping the UK safe.

It will allow HMGCC to work more closely than ever before with the companies and institutions at the forefront of technological innovation, and help solve some of the technical challenges facing those working in service of the UK’s national security.

Partnerships so far have seen breakthroughs in keeping batteries charged in extremely cold environments, and some of its current work includes telecoms challenges to help UK government organisations keep their people safe in sometimes dangerous or hostile locations around the world.

HMGCC, based at Hanslope Park near Milton Keynes, has been a centre of national security engineering excellence since its foundation in 1938, and counts computing pioneer Alan Turing as someone who played an interesting part in its history. Turing, whose work to break the Enigma cipher has been credited with shortening World War Two by as much as two years, developed the world’s first speech encryption device – named Delilah – while at Hanslope.

HMGCC Chief Executive Officer George Williamson said:

“We have hundreds of brilliant engineers and technicians here at HMGCC who, over the years, have come up with countless bespoke solutions to help those striving to keep the country safe in our national security community.

“That amazing work continues and now we also want to ensure we are reaching out to work more closely with external industry and academia, creating a broader hub of engineering excellence.

“Going forward, we are really excited about the opportunities that these new ways of working will offer us, helping us to build on our technical capabilities at a time when the pace of technological advancement is extraordinary.”

Take a look at our list of collaborators on this site’s HMGCC Co-Creation page to find out more about how to get involved.