The NCSC wants to collaborate with organisations developing technologies and approaches for secure, resilient and deployable private 5G
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The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is seeking to engage with technology partners, innovators, and industry leaders to explore the next generation of resilient and secure private 5G capabilities. This work is part of our extensive research portfolio contributing to our advice and guidance, shaping our services and the future products that will continue to protect the UK’s most sensitive information and capabilities.
Private 5G is rapidly becoming a critical enabler for organisations that need secure, reliable, and high-performance communications. As adoption grows, the focus is moving beyond basic connectivity towards building networks that are resilient, secure, rapidly deployable, and capable of operating in environments where traditional infrastructure may be unavailable, degraded, or under attack.
Future requirements for resilient private 5G
Private 5G is transforming enterprise connectivity, industrial operations, critical services, remote working environments, and emerging digital applications. However, many deployments still rely on fixed infrastructure, conventional authentication models, and traditional security approaches that may not provide the operational and cyber resilience needed to support future use cases.
To address these limitations, the next generation of private 5G solutions should:
- deploy rapidly with minimal specialist resources
- maintain connectivity when conventional backhaul infrastructure is unavailable
- provide enterprise-grade identity and access management
- detect, withstand, and recover from cyber incidents quickly
- support flexible and scalable deployment models
- deliver operational continuity in challenging environments
We believe achieving these goals will require close collaboration between industry, innovators, and technology providers.
Areas for collaboration
To help realise the next generation of resilient and secure private 5G networks, we want to collaborate with organisations developing innovative technologies, products, services and research.
- We are interested in hearing from organisations with:
- established private 5G solutions
- emerging technologies
- research and development capabilities
- novel security approaches
- proven deployment experience
- innovative ideas that challenge existing assumptions
The following areas are our current priorities for collaboration and innovation.
- 1
Deploying private 5G rapidly
We are interested in compact, portable private 5G platforms that can be rapidly installed and made operational without compromising the performance, security, and manageability required for enterprise environments.
Potential applications include:
- temporary operational environments
- remote and disconnected locations
- emergency and contingency communications
- event and venue connectivity
- research, testing, and innovation platforms
- 2
Building resilient connectivity without fixed infrastructure
Reducing reliance on fixed infrastructure is one of the most significant opportunities offered by private 5G.
We are interested in solutions that use wireless mesh networking and Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) to create flexible, self-forming, and self-healing communications networks.
These capabilities could support:
- rapid network expansion
- coverage in challenging environments
- greater operational resilience
- more diverse infrastructure options
- lower deployment costs and complexity
- 3
Enabling secure, identity-based access
As private 5G becomes more closely integrated with enterprise identity systems, certificate-based authentication is becoming increasingly relevant.
We are interested in approaches that explore:
- EAP-TLS authentication
- PKI integration
- zero trust architectures
- certificate lifecycle management
- enhanced identity assurance for private mobile networks
These capabilities could help organisations simplify security management while improving trust and control across enterprise environments.
- 4
Improving recovery and operational resilience
To be resilient, private 5G networks need to remain available during incidents and recover quickly after disruption. We are interested in solutions that support the secure backup, protection, and recovery of critical private 5G services and subscriber data.
These capabilities could help organisations minimise downtime and restore operations quickly following system failures or cyber incidents.
- 5
Improving security monitoring and threat detection
Private 5G introduces new visibility and security challenges across radio networks, transport layers, and core infrastructure.
To address this, our areas of interest include:
- 5G-specific intrusion detection
- threat monitoring across network interfaces
- detection of rogue network elements
- signalling and protocol anomaly detection
- security analytics and automation
- integration with modern SIEM and SOC environments
- applying machine learning to enhance threat detection capabilities where appropriate
Intellectual Property considerations
Organisations responding to this Expression of Interest (EOI) should note that the NCSC expects to retain ownership of any foreground intellectual property created as part of this project. Suppliers would typically retain ownership of their background intellectual property, including pre-existing products, software, tools, methodologies, and proprietary capabilities brought to the engagement.
How to respond
Organisations interested in engaging with NCSC are invited to submit an EOI by 5pm on 31 August 2026 via email to:
Please include your:
- company name
- company correspondence address
- primary contact name
- primary contact role within the organisation
- primary contact email address
We will use responses to identify organisations for potential future collaboration and procurement opportunities in resilient and secure private 5G.
Important notice
This EOI is issued by the NCSC for market engagement purposes only and does not constitute a commitment to undertake any procurement, award any contract, or fund any future activity.
The information collected through this process will be used to identify organisations with an interest in this area and to inform any subsequent procurement or engagement activities that may arise.
Any future opportunities will be subject to separate governance, approval, and procurement processes.
The Procurement Act 2023 does not apply to procurement by the NCSC.
Commercial Team, NCSC
Facts Only
* The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) seeks collaboration with technology partners to explore resilient and secure private 5G capabilities.
* Private 5G is becoming a critical enabler for organizations needing secure, reliable communications.
* Future requirements demand solutions that deploy rapidly with minimal specialist resources.
* Solutions must maintain connectivity when conventional backhaul infrastructure is unavailable.
* Requirements include enterprise-grade identity and access management.
* Systems must detect, withstand, and recover from cyber incidents quickly.
* Future systems need to support flexible and scalable deployment models and operational continuity in challenging environments.
* Collaboration areas include deploying private 5G rapidly, building connectivity without fixed infrastructure using mesh networking and IAB, enabling secure identity-based access, improving recovery, and enhancing security monitoring.
* Interested organizations should submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) by August 31, 2026.
Executive Summary
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is seeking collaboration with technology partners, innovators, and industry leaders to explore the development of secure, resilient, and deployable private 5G capabilities. This effort stems from the growing need for private 5G networks to offer resilience, security, and rapid deployment in environments where traditional infrastructure is compromised or unavailable.
The future requirements for resilient private 5G focus on several areas: deploying rapidly with minimal resources, maintaining connectivity when backhaul is unavailable, providing enterprise-grade identity management, ensuring quick detection and recovery from cyber incidents, supporting flexible deployment models, and delivering operational continuity in challenging settings.
Collaboration opportunities are categorized into five key areas: rapid deployment of private 5G platforms, building resilient connectivity without fixed infrastructure using mesh networking and IAB, enabling secure, identity-based access through methods like EAP-TLS and zero trust, improving recovery from incidents, and enhancing security monitoring and threat detection across the network. The NCSC seeks organizations with established solutions, emerging technologies, R&D capabilities, and innovative ideas to address these priorities.
Full Take
The narrative positions the evolution of private 5G not just as a technological rollout but as a fundamental shift in operational philosophy, moving from traditional fixed infrastructure reliance to distributed, self-healing, and identity-centric systems. The underlying pattern suggests that current deployments are functionally insufficient for future enterprise and critical use cases because they inherit legacy security and connectivity assumptions. The focus on mesh networking (IAB) and certificate-based access reflects a systemic distrust in centralized control points—both physical infrastructure and traditional monolithic security models.
The call for collaboration across deployment, resilience, identity, recovery, and monitoring reveals a layered requirement: technology must be inherently designed to handle failure and dynamic change, rather than retrofitting security onto static systems. This implies that the greatest challenge is not merely deploying 5G, but integrating it seamlessly into Zero Trust principles and achieving autonomous operational continuity. The intellectual property stipulation—retaining foreground IP for the NCSC—suggests a strategic intent to steer development toward outcomes that serve national security requirements, framing collaboration as a directed research agenda rather than open market exploration.
What is the true cost of relying on fixed infrastructure for critical communications? If resilience and rapid deployment are defined by the ability to operate effectively when infrastructure is degraded, then reliance on centralized backhaul is an inherent vulnerability that must be structurally dismantled. Does the pursuit of rapid deployment inadvertently bypass necessary security diligence, or does the required agility force a maturation of identity management practices? What mechanisms exist to ensure that innovative solutions prioritize operational resilience over mere feature velocity during implementation?
Sentinel — Human
The text functions as a formal call for collaboration from a government body outlining specific technical requirements and areas for innovation regarding private 5G security and resilience.