UK Innovation Map

Compare placesDifferent, not ranked.

Two or three clusters, read side by side across sectors, research, companies, capital, infrastructure, government designations and UKIZ relevance. There is no score and no ranking: British clusters are different from one another, not better or worse than one another.

Choose up to three clusters

Side by side

Dimension	Cornwall & PlymouthSouth West	Teesside & the HumberNorth East / Yorkshire and the Humber	CambridgeEast of England
Sectors	Space, Clean Energy, Robotics & Autonomous Systems Supporting: Advanced Materials, AgriTech & FoodTech, Digital Technologies	Clean Energy, Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Materials Supporting: Digital Technologies, AgriTech & FoodTech	Life Sciences, Semiconductors, Engineering Biology, Artificial Intelligence Supporting: Quantum Technologies, Advanced Materials, AgriTech & FoodTech, Digital Technologies
Research	University of Plymouth Plymouth Marine Laboratory	Not recorded on the map.	University of Cambridge Wellcome Sanger Institute MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Companies	Not recorded on the map.	Not recorded on the map.	Cambridge semiconductor and processor IP cluster
Infrastructure	Space and Earth observation capability, Cornwall Aerodrome and space capability, marine research and test facilities and naval infrastructure.	Centre for Process Innovation Process innovation and biologics scale-up facilities, port capacity and grid-connected industrial land.	Babraham Research Campus Cambridge Science Park University and institute laboratories, genomics and biomedical campus facilities, and semiconductor design capability.
Capital	Public programmes and a small local investor base; almost all growth capital is external.	Infrastructure capital, corporate investment and public programmes; almost no local venture base.	Specialist deep tech and life science funds, university-linked funds, and corporate partners; strong at seed, thinner at growth stage relative to demand.
Government programmes	No place-based designation recorded.	Teesside Freeport, Freeports Humber Freeport, Freeports	No place-based designation recorded.
What exists	Space launch and Earth observation capability, marine autonomy and ocean research, and a distinctive combination of coastline, test space and specialist facilities.	The largest concentration of industrial decarbonisation activity in the UK: hydrogen, carbon capture, process manufacturing, biologics scale-up capability and two Freeports with substantial serviced industrial land.	Extreme research density for its size: life sciences and genomics, semiconductor and processor IP, engineering biology and AI, with a mature spin-out culture and specialist investors who understand long timelines.
What's missing · UKIZ interpretation	Company density and connectivity. Excellent facilities are not always well connected to capital, customers and complementary suppliers elsewhere in Britain, and skilled people are difficult to retain.	Skills pipelines and company formation. The land, power and permits exist; the innovation companies and the technical workforce to fill them do not yet exist at the same scale.	Ownership retention. Discovery and early company formation work; the Series B onward stage frequently transfers ownership overseas. Laboratory and scale-up space, power and housing also constrain growth.
What could connect · UKIZ interpretation	Launch and Earth observation connected to Glasgow satellite manufacture and Harwell applications, and marine autonomy connected to Solent defence and offshore energy demand.	Industrial land and process scale-up capability connected to research clusters elsewhere that have technologies without a place to build them: a national scale-up site rather than a regional one.	Cambridge discovery connected to UK manufacturing and biomanufacturing capacity, and to later-stage domestic capital, so that value created here is realised here rather than acquired out of the country.
UKIZ relevance	The proposed Cornwall & Devon mission treats the sea and the satellite economy as one system rather than two separate sectors.	This is where Britain either builds an energy supply chain or imports one. The proposed Teesside & Humber mission is explicitly about retained industrial capability.	Cambridge produces intellectual property at a rate few places match, and loses ownership of too much of it at Series B. The proposed Oxford-Cambridge zone concentrates on commercialisation and retention rather than on more discovery.
Last verified	15 August 2026	15 August 2026	15 August 2026

Proposed by UKIZ · independent · not a government designation

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