Accreditations

Supporting our 2030 ambitions

For Partnerships, Cyber Essentials directly supports our wider partnerships sub‑strategy around workforce and skills. Achieving this accreditation will give us the ability to collaborate with external organisations who expect these standards as part of procurement and due diligence.

For Research and Knowledge Exchange, Cyber Essentials supports our ambition to deliver world-leading, rigorous, and impactful/creative research. This accreditation will assure funders of our secure research data management and enhance our credibility.

Strengthens eligibility and credibility

• Cyber Essentials is now a common prerequisite in public‑sector tenders and contracting, particularly for the NHS or where data‑handling, digital services or joint delivery are involved.
• Achieving accreditation enables us to continue to secure significant income streams that could otherwise be passed to our competitors.
• Many UK research funders, including Innovate UK, UK Government Departments, and defence- or security-sensitive programmes, require or strongly prefer Cyber Essentials certification. This means greater eligibility, reduced due diligence delays, and higher credibility.

Opens doors to new partnerships

• Cyber Essentials is a pre-requisite for Greenwich to be listed as a supplier on Crown Commercial Services (CCS). Once approved, we would be recognised as a trusted, vetted and pre‑qualified supplier to the UK public sector, industry and community partners. This is a requirement for suppliers of apprenticeships and will promote Greenwich to a wider audience.

Enhances partner confidence and collaboration

• Cyber Essentials underpins our partnerships and workforce/skills ambitions, assuring employers and stakeholders that our systems meet recognised security standards, which builds trust and supports deeper collaboration.
• Cyber Essentials provides visible assurance to industry partners, SMEs, public-sector bodies, and international collaborators that Greenwich has strong baseline protections in place. This is particularly valuable in multidisciplinary research projects involving sensitive data or intellectual property.

Reduces cyber risk across research projects

• Universities are frequent targets for cyberattacks due to the value of research data and IP. Cyber Essentials reduces risks such as ransomware, phishing, data breaches, and compromised devices. For GRI, this directly protects project continuity, commercial partnerships, and long-term research outputs.

Streamlines research bidding and contracting processes

• Bids increasingly require detailed information on institutional cybersecurity. With Cyber Essentials in place, we can:
  • Provide standardised evidence for multiple bids.
  • Reduce delays caused by repeated security questionnaires.
  • Simplify contract negotiation with partners and funders.
• This improves efficiency across the proposal lifecycle and reduces admin burden for academics the Funding Development team.

Supports secure research data management

• Cyber Essentials reinforces secure handling of research data throughout the project lifecycle, from bid development through delivery to project closure. It strengthens:
  • Device security for fieldwork and remote research.
  • Secure access to shared research systems.
  • Protected data exchanges with external collaborators.