Julian Free spent 31 years in the British Army, during which he spent much of his time deployed to global hot spots such as Kuwait, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan in UK, UN and NATO appointments. He was appointed MBE in 2001, OBE in 2009 and CBE in 2012.

In 2017 Julian joined the University of Lincoln and is currently Deputy Vice Chancellor (Regional Engagement). He became Chair of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP’s Defence and Security Board three years ago. 
 
In this blog he discusses the achievements of the board and highlights opportunities for the future. 

One purpose of the Defence and Security Board is to bring inward investment into the region, and to do this we need to promote Lincolnshire as a great place to live and work if you’re in the sector.  
 
Back in 2019 we set up a Defence and Security Network, with the aim of eventually becoming an MOD recognised cluster. This was a way to bring together businesses in the sector and showcase what Lincolnshire has to offer. In 2023 we achieved this goal, and the Greater Lincolnshire Regional Defence and Security Cluster (GL RDSC) was approved.  
 
The cluster now has over 60 members and is still growing. This has allowed the sector to be collaborative and connected, giving us the opportunity to help each other with common challenges and to work with academics at the university on innovation projects.  
 
Most importantly, the Cluster allows us to promote nationally the businesses working in the security sector, and we’ve now seen an increase in companies locating here to establish their businesses. It has also allowed us to put Greater Lincolnshire on the map in terms of the military and promote the specialist commercial and academic expertise, knowledge and experience available here to support defence requirements. The region’s profile for working in data and artificial intelligence has risen significantly, which has encouraged companies to open offices here.
 
As the defence and security sector is continuing to grow and attract more businesses to the area, I think there are some key opportunities we can capitalise on, namely: working with other sectors in the county, creating a local secure data centre, and the redevelopment of RAF Scampton. 
 
The security sector in particular impacts a lot of areas the Greater Lincolnshire LEP works in, which is a big opportunity for us. For example, the UK Food Valley is essentially working in food security and the Energy Board is working on energy security. Protecting critical national infrastructure is a big part of the security agenda and we have the opportunity to work across these different sectors to innovate, solve challenges and increase inward investment into the county.  
 
One of the challenges we see across other sectors, and have found for ourselves as well, is how to harness the potential of data science and AI. We have access to huge volumes of information but processing it effectively and efficiently is a challenge – people and systems are overloaded. There are also issues with how to combine and present data in the best way to enable people to make better, quicker decisions and understanding how AI can help speed the process up.  
 
A big priority for us is to create a secure data centre in Lincoln, which would allow the military, local defence businesses and academics to all work together in one place. This would allow for more experimentation and analysis to help answer the questions we have about data exploitation.  Such a centre would not be limited to just military use, but with different levels of access it cold be used by any business or organisation who wanted to drive innovation using their or other’s data, for example the NHS. As an example, a US Defence AI company, which recently located on the Lincoln Science & Innovation Park is working on a project with the NHS to develop more effective cancer treatment.   
 
The redevelopment of RAF Scampton is also a key opportunity for the sector as its runway and associated airspace freedoms are particularly attractive to companies developing uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) or the sensors, communications and other capabilities carried by the platforms. Allowing businesses to test uncrewed aerial vehicles in this area would be hugely beneficial and could bring even more businesses to the area. 
 
One of the challenges we have now is increasing the number of jobs available in the sector and increasing the visibility of these careers as well. We have a lot of talented people in Greater Lincolnshire, and we want them to be able to have a good career here without feeling the need to move away. We also want to provide job opportunities for those who leave the RAF or other Services and want to settle here.  
 
To do this we need to encourage more businesses to move to the area, especially bigger businesses that have more room for career growth. Setting up things such as the secure data centre will also help with creating new jobs, particularly in the field as data and decision science and AI.  
 
In the future we will be continuing to promote Greater Lincolnshire nationally, with the aim of attracting investment, businesses and job opportunities to the area. We are especially looking forward to exhibiting at DSEI 2025 in London, which will give us the chance to showcase our cluster members and highlight the work going on in the county to a global audience.  

Find out more about the defence and security sector here.