Welcome to the Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Chilterns Regional Defence and Security Cluster (OBC RDSC).
We are one of a growing network of regional clusters, whose purpose is to enable defence and security organisations to meet emerging threats in a timely manner, by enhancing and invigorating the UK industrial base.
We are thereby helping the Government to deliver the ambitions of the Defence and Security Industrial Strategy (DSIS) and the Defence Command Paper, “Defence in a Competitive Age”.
The MOD supports this initiative through the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), encouraging our focus on three main strands of activity:
Improving collaboration and knowledge exchange between Defence Primes, Small-to-Medium Enterprises, Academia and Government Science Facilities.
Supporting research and innovation in ways that help to pull through promising new technologies and capabilities.
Developing more efficient routes for the exploitation and commercialisation of those innovations, especially with dual-use technologies.
The OBC RDSC is established as a collaboration between industry, academia, STFC-UKRI, and local and combined authorities, to deliver these objectives across the region. It includes existing MOD suppliers and innovative SMEs, together with the technology growth hubs at Harwell, Culham and Westcott.
Our region has a rich diversity of innovation and expertise, with specialisms that include space, uncrewed systems, quantum technologies, AI and digital systems, nuclear science and engineering, advanced materials, energy storage, and health and life sciences.
Being part of the OBC RDSC brings specific benefits through the delivery of our detailed cluster objectives, which are set out below.
01.
Help enterprises that have an interest in defence and security to deliver new capabilities, by enabling relationships and collaboration between SMEs, academia, research organisations, existing MOD suppliers and government.
02.
Identify, understand, access and exploit defence and security funding and investment opportunities (including government/MOD-industry joint ventures and private investment).
03.
Improve the overall understanding of defence and security needs, trends and requirements, and how to deliver these capabilities efficiently along the recognised lines of development.
04.
Provide links to the MOD’s Front-Line Commands and their capability development plans.
05.
Develop science and technology skills within the region, enhancing capacity to deliver defence and security capability, and thereby promote economic growth and prosperity.