TECH TALKS:
CALL FOR PAPERS_

We are at a pivotal moment in the cyber security sector.

As NCSC CEO Richard Horne set out in his CYBERUK 2026 speech, we face an elevated threat from a combination of rising geopolitical tension and adversary adoption of AI. This is amplified by long-term global underinvestment in foundational cyber security.

This moment demands, and provides opportunity, to bring new approaches to cyber defence to get ahead of the threat.

The cyber security sector in the UK and beyond is starting to demonstrate what security in the AI era will look like. In 2027, the CYBERUK Tech Talks will showcase the latest research and innovation in the field.

We welcome technical talks showcasing leading-edge, transformative research and innovations across a wide range of cyber security priorities, especially talks backed by evidence of practical application of new approaches to cyber security.

We are looking for submissions across a broad range of cyber security topics, which might include:

• Sociotechnical, incentive and economic approaches that ensure cyber investment aligns to cyber risk.
• Technology that transforms our security, and reduces the significance of point vulnerabilities. This includes Passkeys, seL4, CHERI and cross domain technologies.
• Securing AI, AI containment and securing our systems from AI enabled threats.
• Automated cyber defence and data-driven operational cyber security.
• Scalable approaches to illuminating and removing network, system and product vulnerabilities.

We will select a mix of experts across industry, academia and government.

We will be selecting papers that align with the CYBERUK 2027 theme – Securing the AI Era.

We expect a high number of high-quality applications to speak on the Tech Talks stage, and we will assess submissions against the following criteria:

• Transformative: Does the topic set out a concrete, meaningful shift in cyber security?
• Relevance: Is the topic relevant to the senior cyber thought leaders that attend CYBERUK?
• Technical Quality: Does the proposal demonstrate appropriate technical, sociotechnical or scientific depth?
• Evidence: As ever, proposals that are backed by examples, evidence and technical papers will be ranked higher. Sales pitches will be filtered out at an early stage.

We will use AI to remove proposals that clearly do not meet these criteria and to prepare information in support of an expert-based assessment process.

Please read the full criteria guidelines here.