Methodology

What a point is

A point is a place where UKIZ holds evidence of capability: research, companies, investors, universities or specialist infrastructure. It records that capability exists there and where the evidence for it comes from.

A point is never a proposed UKIZ site, a designation, a ranking or a promise of investment. UKIZ has no designating power. Point size reflects how much is recorded at a place, not a quality score.

Where cluster records come from

The record set is built from authoritative public sources: DSIT's Innovation Clusters Map for the geography of R&D and innovation activity, UKRI and the Catapult Network for research and innovation infrastructure, GOV.UK for place-based government programmes, and official university and institutional sources for research organisations.

Commercial directories are not used. Where a datapoint cannot be traced to an authoritative source, it is not published.

Sourced versus classified

Two different things sit on the same map and are always kept distinct. Sourced facts: that a place holds a university, a Catapult centre, an investor base or a government programme, come from the sources above and carry a citation and a review date.

UKIZ classification is different: it is the choice to read those sourced places through a Zone, a national mission UKIZ has defined. Selecting a Zone does not add or remove capability from a place; it colours the same sourced points to show which carry capability relevant to that mission.

What the map does not claim

The map does not claim that a place has been selected, designated or ranked by UKIZ or by government. It does not claim capacity, availability or willingness to work with a visitor. It does not publish a proprietary score, index or league table of places.

Where a place carries no recorded capability for a chosen Zone, it is shown dimmed rather than given an estimated value. Absence of a point is not evidence that capability does not exist there; it means UKIZ has not yet recorded and sourced it.

Inclusion

Inclusion is never sold. There is no paid placement, sponsored ranking or preferential visibility, and none will be introduced.

The map is deliberately not exhaustive: depth, authority and accuracy matter more than marker count. Nominations of places, organisations and corrections are reviewed manually against evidence before anything is published.

Review cadence

Every record carries a last reviewed date. The dataset shown on the map was last reviewed on 15 August 2026, and records are re-checked against authoritative sources on a schedule, with material changes held for human review.

Limitations

This is an early release. It shows major places with recorded capability, research and innovation infrastructure and government designations; company, investor and accelerator coverage is deliberately partial rather than superficially complete.

No proprietary index, score or ranking is published, because no defensible methodology for one exists yet.

Corrections

Anyone can suggest a correction or an addition from the map page. Nothing is published automatically; every submission is checked against a source first.