LONDON, Oct. 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon UK has launched a research competition designed to harness and foster innovation in UK Small- to Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), focused primarily on aerospace, defence, advanced electronics and cyber security. At an event hosted by the company in Cheltenham, the pilot scheme, with a £40,000 technological investment award, was launched initially to address collaboration in the cyber security domain. This has challenged a number of specialist cyber Small- to Medium-Sized Enterprises to propose research projects to solve known, or address emerging, cyber security risks and customer problems -- and to implement more agile methodologies for application development. The winner of the research competition will be selected in November.

Bob Delorge, chief executive of Raytheon UK, commented: "Raytheon believes that building a community of Small- to Medium-Sized Enterprises to work collaboratively is essential to delivering UK cyber projects. Raytheon UK to date has been engaged with more than 700 suppliers across the full range of its 200 programmes. However, the company does see the need to build a collaborative group that can better embrace R&D and joint development in order to get capability to market faster, both in the UK and for export."

The collaboration is ultimately geared towards having a mutually beneficial effect for Raytheon and SMEs in terms of export opportunities, joint development solutions, improving tools and techniques, and reducing time to market, where innovation in cyber, for example, is a key differentiator in countering the latest threats.

Martyn Ruks, Chief Technology Officer for MWRInfoSecurity, who attended the launch of the cyber pilot said: "The resources and market access which larger primes can bring to bear are considerable particularly in systems integration and product development and when matched with the innovation and agility of SMEs, it's not hard to see that the scheme can benefit British business and international customers."

About Raytheon UK
Raytheon UK is a subsidiary of Raytheon Company. It is a prime contractor and major supplier to the UK Ministry of Defence and has developed strong capabilities in mission systems integration in defence, national security and commercial markets. Raytheon UK also designs, develops and manufactures a range of high-technology electronic systems and software at facilities in Harlow, Glenrothes, Uxbridge, Waddington and Broughton.

About Raytheon
Raytheon Company, with 2012 sales of $24 billion and 68,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defence, security and civil markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 91 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems; as well as a broad range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @Raytheon.