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
- London
- Cambridge
- Oxford
- Manchester
- Birmingham & the West Midlands
- Bristol & Bath
- Sheffield & Rotherham
- Leeds & West Yorkshire
- Liverpool City Region
- Newcastle & the North East
- Teesside & the Humber
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow & the Central Belt
- Belfast
- Cardiff & South Wales
- Southampton & Portsmouth
- Cornwall & Plymouth
- Nottingham & Derby
- Norwich & the East
Side by side
| Dimension | Southampton & PortsmouthSouth East | Bristol & BathSouth West | EdinburghScotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sectors | Defence & Security, Robotics & Autonomous Systems, Advanced Manufacturing Supporting: Clean Energy, Digital Technologies, Advanced Materials | Semiconductors, Robotics & Autonomous Systems, Quantum Technologies, Defence & Security Supporting: Creative Industries, Advanced Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Clean Energy | Artificial Intelligence, Financial Technology, Robotics & Autonomous Systems, Digital Technologies Supporting: Engineering Biology, Life Sciences, Quantum Technologies, Creative Industries |
| Research |
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| Companies | Not recorded on the map. |
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| Infrastructure | Not recorded on the map. Naval and maritime engineering facilities, photonics research centres and port infrastructure. |
Quantum and robotics laboratories, national composites facilities and aerospace test capability. |
Informatics research facilities, robotics commercialisation facilities and supercomputing capability. |
| Capital | Prime contractor supply chain finance and public programmes rather than venture capital. | An established angel and seed base with strong deep tech interest; growth rounds usually come from London or the US. | Large institutional asset management presence; venture activity is smaller than the capital base implies. |
| Government programmes |
| No place-based designation recorded. | No place-based designation recorded. |
| What exists | Maritime, naval and defence engineering, marine autonomy, photonics research and a major port and logistics complex. | Semiconductor and processor design, quantum engineering, robotics and autonomous systems, aerospace and composites, and a creative and screen economy of national significance. | One of Europe's largest informatics research bases, robotics and autonomous systems commercialisation capability, and a substantial asset management, banking and financial technology sector. |
| What's missing · UKIZ interpretation | Routes for smaller innovators into defence and maritime procurement, and a civil market for capability developed for defence customers. | Fabrication and volume production capacity to match the design strength, and hardware-friendly capital. Companies scale by moving production abroad. | A connection between the capital sitting in Edinburgh's financial institutions and the technology being created a mile away; and later-stage funding to stop companies relocating south. |
| What could connect · UKIZ interpretation | Marine autonomy and photonics connected to Plymouth marine capability, Bristol robotics and offshore energy operations: the same technologies serving defence, energy and shipping. | Bristol design capability connected to South Wales compound semiconductor fabrication and to composites and aerospace manufacturing, a western technology corridor with a complete chain. | Scottish institutional capital connected to Scottish deep tech, and Edinburgh AI and robotics capability connected to Glasgow manufacturing and satellite production. |
| UKIZ relevance | Marine autonomy is where defence, robotics and clean energy meet. The proposed Cornwall & Devon marine mission connects to this capability directly. | Bristol's design and robotics capability has historically been acquired rather than scaled. The relevant missions concentrate on the capital and customer connections that let companies stay independent. | Scotland's research strength is not in question; its scale-up retention is. The proposed Scotland mission focuses on the capital and customer layer. |
| Last verified | 15 August 2026 | 15 August 2026 | 15 August 2026 |
Proposed by UKIZ · independent · not a government designation