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	Glasgow & the Central BeltScotland	Norwich & the EastEast of England	Newcastle & the North EastNorth East
Sectors	Space, Semiconductors, Quantum Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing Supporting: Clean Energy, Digital Technologies, Robotics & Autonomous Systems	AgriTech & FoodTech, Engineering Biology, Clean Energy Supporting: Life Sciences, Digital Technologies	Clean Energy, Mobility & Transport Technology, Advanced Manufacturing Supporting: Life Sciences, Digital Technologies, Robotics & Autonomous Systems
Research	University of Glasgow University of Strathclyde	University of East Anglia John Innes Centre Quadram Institute	Newcastle University Durham University
Companies	Glasgow small satellite manufacturing cluster	Not recorded on the map.	Not recorded on the map.
Infrastructure	National Manufacturing Institute Scotland Satellite manufacturing capacity, nanofabrication cleanrooms and national manufacturing research facilities.	Not recorded on the map. Plant and food research institutes, genomics facilities and offshore energy operations bases.	Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult Offshore renewable test facilities, battery production investment and university research centres.
Capital	Public co-investment and specialist funds; hardware scale-up capital is scarce.	Research council and charitable funding dominate; venture capital is scarce.	Infrastructure and development finance, with limited venture capital relative to industrial scale.
Government programmes	No place-based designation recorded.	Freeport East, Freeports	North East Investment Zone, Investment Zones
What exists	More small satellites built here than anywhere else in Europe, quantum imaging and nanofabrication research, and a large applied engineering, manufacturing and energy research base.	Plant, food and genomics research of international standing, offshore energy operations and maintenance, and a significant agricultural production base on the doorstep.	Offshore renewable energy testing at national scale, battery and electrification investment, ageing and life sciences research and a strong engineering base.
What's missing · UKIZ interpretation	Downstream value. Satellites are manufactured here while much of the data and applications value is captured elsewhere. Scale-up finance for hardware is limited.	Commercial translation of agri-food science, and connection between offshore energy operations and the research base inland.	Supply chain retention. Britain builds offshore capacity while importing much of the equipment; local firms often serve as installers rather than manufacturers.
What could connect · UKIZ interpretation	Glasgow manufacture connected to Cornwall launch and Earth observation, Harwell space applications and domestic data customers, forming one national space chain instead of four regional ones.	Agri-food and genomics research connected to national food manufacturing and to engineering biology capacity, and offshore operations connected to the Humber and North East energy supply chain.	Offshore testing capability connected to Teesside and Humber industrial land, Sheffield manufacturing research and domestic energy buyers. That is an energy supply chain rather than an energy market.
UKIZ relevance	Manufacture, launch and data are three different geographies in Britain. The proposed Scotland mission connects them deliberately.	Food security and biotechnology intersect here more clearly than anywhere else in Britain, and connect to the proposed Oxford-Cambridge mission.	The region has the industrial land, the ports and the skills base. The proposed North East mission focuses on retaining the supply chain, not only the assembly.
Last verified	15 August 2026	15 August 2026	15 August 2026

Proposed by UKIZ · independent · not a government designation

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