UKIZ
Concept vision of a future UK Innovation Zone: low-rise brick, timber and glass research buildings around a public square beside water, with people walking and cycling
UKIZ vision

11 Zones. One connected Britain.

Britain already has the universities, researchers, companies, talent and ideas. UKIZ asks a bigger question: what could happen if we connected them into extraordinary places built around Britain's greatest opportunities?

Explore the 11 ZonesHelp build them

An illustration of how a future UKIZ Zone could bring research, enterprise, homes, public life and nature together. Concept only — no site has been selected and no development is proposed.

The mental model

Eleven opportunities to build extraordinary places around Britain's greatest strengths.

A Zone is not "AI companies in Britain" or "life sciences organisations". It is what happens when research, universities, companies, investors, specialist facilities, talent, education, homes, transport, culture, nature and public life are deliberately connected into a place people want to work, build, study, invest, live, visit and belong in.

  • What exists

    Verified organisations, research and infrastructure already in Britain.

  • What could exist

    The UKIZ vision for the place these strengths could become.

  • What we need

    The partners, land, capital and infrastructure required to close the gap.

Eleven Zones. Scroll through the future of Britain.

Candidate ecosystems describe where capability already exists. They are not selected sites.

Where Britain could build

Where Britain could build.

Select a Zone to see the ecosystems that already hold capability for it. These are existing strengths and candidate ecosystems, not selected sites.

Candidate ecosystems describe where capability already exists. They are not selected sites, shortlists or commitments.

Where Britain could build.

Select a Zone to see the ecosystems that already hold capability for it. These are existing strengths and candidate ecosystems, not selected sites.

Imagine this place

The anatomy of a UKIZ Zone.

  • The Axis

    The central pedestrian route connecting people, ideas and opportunity.

  • The Forum

    The public heart: meetings, demonstrations, events, exhibitions, food and collaboration.

  • Research & innovation

    Laboratories, university departments, specialist research and testing facilities.

  • Startups & scale-ups

    Flexible space for companies to start, grow and stay within the ecosystem.

  • Industry

    Established businesses, manufacturing, prototyping and commercialisation.

  • Capital

    Where founders, investors and institutions naturally meet.

  • Education

    Universities, apprenticeships, technical education and lifelong learning.

  • Homes

    Housing for different ages, incomes and stages of life.

  • Public life

    Restaurants, cafés, pubs, shops, culture, sport and entertainment.

  • Nature

    Green corridors, water, biodiversity, running, walking and cycling.

  • Transport

    Fast connections into the city, the region, the airport and the national UKIZ network.

Eleven Zones, not eleven identical campuses. Architecture and public realm answer to local materials, existing buildings, industrial heritage, landscape, climate and culture. What is shared is the Axis principle, the public realm philosophy, wayfinding, quality standards, connectivity and the operating model — never the buildings.

Applied to every Zone, that means local materials and existing buildings first — never a transplanted business park.

The network

The power is in the network.

A life sciences company needs AI, materials and biomanufacturing. A space company needs semiconductors, robotics and energy. Eleven Zones only make sense if they can call on one another — which is why UKIZ is a national network rather than eleven separate developments.

How a Zone earns itself

Community first. Concrete later.

We don't believe in building empty innovation districts and hoping people arrive. Each Zone has to earn itself.

  1. Step 1

    Community

    Who wants to participate?

    Build national and international participation around the field first — openly, and for free.

  2. Step 2

    Innovation Camp

    Will people gather?

    Bring the community together physically in a temporary environment and test real demand.

  3. Step 3

    Hub

    Will they keep coming?

    Create a repeatable permanent presence where the Camp proved appetite.

  4. Step 4

    Zone

    Is there enough evidence to build?

    Build permanently only when demand, capital, partners and a place justify it.

  • 16Communities
  • 11Zones
  • —Innovation Camps
  • —Hubs
  • —Physical Zones

The eleven, in full.

Zone 01

Life Sciences & Health Innovation

From discovery to treatment to global health.

Britain discovers at world level and commercialises below it. The mission is the route from discovery to manufactured product, clinical adoption, retained ownership and export.

Cambridge (existing strength) · Oxford (existing strength) · Manchester (candidate ecosystem)

Zone 02

Engineering Biology & Biomanufacturing

Where biology becomes something Britain makes.

Engineering biology reaches into medicine, materials, food, chemicals and energy. The constraint is rarely the science. It is fermentation, scale-up and manufacturing capacity.

Cambridge (existing strength) · Liverpool (candidate ecosystem) · Teesside & Humber (opportunity area)

Zone 03

Quantum Technologies

Where the strange becomes useful.

Britain built an early, sustained national quantum programme. The mission is to ensure the resulting companies, supply chain and customers are British rather than acquired early.

Bristol & Bath (existing strength) · Oxford (existing strength) · Glasgow (candidate ecosystem)

Zone 04

Semiconductors, Photonics & Advanced Connectivity

Where light and silicon carry the country.

Britain will not compete on leading-edge logic volume. It can lead in compound semiconductors, photonics, design and specialist connectivity — if fabrication and packaging capacity exists here.

Cardiff & South Wales (existing strength) · Southampton (existing strength) · Cambridge (candidate ecosystem)

Zone 05

Advanced Materials

Where the next material is invented, tested and made.

Materials sit upstream of almost every other mission. Britain discovers materials well and qualifies and manufactures them slowly, which is where the value is lost.

Manchester (potential anchor) · Sheffield (existing strength) · Birmingham (candidate ecosystem)

Zone 06

Future Mobility & Advanced Manufacturing

Where Britain builds how the world moves.

Britain retains a serious manufacturing base with an unusually strong applied research estate around it. The mission is transition: batteries, electrification, digital production and the supply chains beneath them.

Coventry & Birmingham (existing strength) · Sheffield (existing strength) · North East (candidate ecosystem)

Zone 07

Robotics & Autonomous Systems

Where machines learn to work with humans.

Britain has strong robotics and autonomy research and comparatively few deployed systems. The mission is customers, testbeds and certification, not more demonstrations.

Bristol & Bath (potential anchor) · Edinburgh (existing strength) · Manchester (candidate ecosystem)

Zone 08

Space & Satellite Technologies

Build what leaves Earth. Improve what happens on it.

Britain builds more small satellites than most of Europe and captures comparatively little downstream data value. The mission covers manufacture, launch, data and applications together.

Glasgow (potential anchor) · Edinburgh (existing strength) · Cornwall & Plymouth (candidate ecosystem)

Zone 09

Clean Energy Systems & Industrial Decarbonisation

Where the energy transition becomes an industry.

Britain leads in offshore wind deployment and lags in the manufacture of what it deploys. The mission is supply chain, industrial decarbonisation and the technologies around them.

Teesside & Humber (existing strength) · North East (candidate ecosystem) · Aberdeen & North Sea (opportunity area)

Zone 10

Defence, Security & Dual-Use Technology

Where good technology reaches the people who need it in time.

Sovereign capability now depends on companies that are not traditional primes. The mission is procurement access, dual-use routes and the security capability the rest of the economy depends on.

Southampton & Portsmouth (existing strength) · Bristol & Bath (existing strength) · Belfast (candidate ecosystem)

Zone 11

AgriTech & Future Food Systems

Where Britain feeds itself, and others, better.

Food security, land use and rural productivity are national questions. Britain has world-class plant science, real testbeds and comparatively few scaled agritech companies.

Norwich & the East (existing strength) · Nottingham & Derby (candidate ecosystem) · Cornwall & Plymouth (opportunity area)

The 11 UK Innovation Zones are visions, not approved developments. No site has been selected, no permission sought and no partner appointed. Everything shown as a Zone is conceptual. Everything shown as evidence is verified, sourced and dated.

Build with us

Britain already has the ingredients. UKIZ connects them.

Help build a ZoneThe evidence mapExplore Britain