Building Britain's technological edge: a Q and A with HMGCC's CEO

1)    Which technology areas are you most focused on right now and how can innovators outside government get involved in helping develop these technologies?

At HMGCC our core business is providing technology solutions to mission teams across

national security, defence and law enforcement. While we have been doing this for many decades, acceleration in the pace of development across a broad range of technologies has required us to change how HMGCC, and the broader national security community, engage with external tech partners. 

At the end of last year, we launched a campaign known as Top 10 Technologies, in which we named 10 specific technologies that were particularly of interest to national security and tech. These ranged from edge AI and quantum sensing to satellite platforms, RF technologies and novel power sources. See the full list on our website.

What these technologies have in common is that they can help provide the UK with an edge from a national security and defence perspective, while also being key areas for investment and economic growth.

Through the campaign we’ve been asking companies and academics to send us short summaries of technologies they’re working on, that they think might interest us. Through this initiative, we have evaluated more than 150 submissions from innovators keen to tell HMGCC about their latest concepts. The goal is then to find out if there are any ideas or products that could help support UK tech capability.

Of course, this list is not set in stone. Technology moves at an extraordinary pace, and we have to constantly adapt to the challenges we face. By understanding and working with companies at the forefront of innovation, we can channel that expertise to where it's most needed across national security.

2)    HMGCC will be appearing at Cambridge Tech Week for the first time, why Cambridge and who will you be most interested in speaking to there?

We’re really excited to be one of Cambridge Tech Week’s sponsors. This will be the first time HMGCC has attended the event, and we’ll be exhibiting as part of Innovation Alley as well as taking part in a panel discussing sovereign AI. 

We are based just outside Milton Keynes, near Bletchley Park, for good historical reasons. We are right at the centre of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, home to much of the UK’s most exciting innovation clusters.

This is why we are at Cambridge this week. Cambridge is home to some of the UK’s most exciting science and technology research institutes, start-ups and technology companies, across areas such as semiconductors, AI, biotech and advanced manufacturing. The list goes on. All of these could be partners with us, and we are keen to engage in conversation with whoever is keen to work with national security. 

3)    For a small company, what does the journey from initial contact with HMGCC to a working relationship actually look like, and how long does that typically take?

Many companies work with us for the first time through HMGCC Co-Creation. This is an initiative in which we publish our latest national security and defence challenges online and on social media. These challenges can be seen on our website.

Through Co-Creation, firms can apply to take part in 12-week, funded challenges, aimed at developing technology that could be useful to national security. If successful, firms are invited to pitch days. Contracting with us for Co-Creation can take as little as two weeks. 

When the challenge period ends, we are still in close contact with the companies involved. We help them explore funding opportunities and make sure potential future markets in government know about them. 

We also partner with NSSIF, which invests directly in early-stage companies and indirectly through a fund-of-funds programme with the British Business Bank, supported by joint due diligence on strategically aligned venture funds. We provide routes for the companies to national security customers, as well as expert insight from our world-class in-house engineering teams.  

4)    Why do you take a proactive approach in working with UK start-ups?

There are two main reasons. First, it is mission-critical. So much exciting and impactful tech, from novel, high efficiency AI inference semiconductors, to the most sensitive quantum sensors, is being created by the UK. By bringing these technologies to national security and defence, we can do our bit to help keep the country safe. 

This is also critically important from a technology sovereignty perspective. By supporting promising UK tech companies, we are building the UK’s tech capability. We are helping build the UK’s assured access to critical technologies. This does not mean owning the whole technology stack, but rather creating a more resilient, flexible, assured supply chain of technologies. This is not only for national security, but also for UK industry more broadly. 

5)    HMGCC has traditionally operated with a high degree of secrecy given the nature of its work. How do you balance that necessary confidentiality with the need to be open enough to attract external partners and talent?

Secrecy is a tough word when working with industry. It can be a deterrent – something that suggests we may not be open to working with outside industry or that our security rules may make us difficult to work with. Actually that’s not the case.

Of course we still deal in secrecy all of the time but, in order to work more with outside organisations, we have learned to identify what is truly classified and elements of other projects that can be shared. This often comes down to concentrating on how something is done, and the type of technology needed, rather than describing in detail how it is used, where and with whom. This enables us to keep our work secret but still seize that opportunity to work with the outside world.

We have also brought in processes to make the experience of working with us easier – so no one needs to be deterred by the word secret. 

6)    What role do you see innovators from industry and academia playing in HMGCC's work, particularly in areas of fundamental or early-stage research that might not yet have an obvious defence or national security application?

My main message to innovators, wherever they are, is to always keep an open mind as to how their technology could be transformed for different purposes. We’ve been running the Co-Creation scheme for a few years and we have numerous examples of how national security solutions have been found within very surprising and completely different sectors. One example is in a challenge we ran on wearable technologies, which attracted applicants specialising in advanced textiles, wearables and biomedical devices. There’s a clear call to action for companies everywhere to think about how their incredible ideas can be used for the good of the UK. 

This isn't about developing another piece of commercial kit. It's a genuine call to help the UK stay ahead in technology, in a world where the threat of technology being used against us can be just as great as the opportunities it offers.

The views expressed in this Sponsor article are the author's own and do not necessarily represent those of Cambridge Tech Week.