UK Innovation Zones

Defence & Security in the UK

Defence and security capability spans the South West, Portsmouth and the South Coast, the West Midlands, Northern Ireland and the Central Belt.

See this on the map →
Companies
7
Investors
0
Universities
3
Research centres
2
Facilities
0

Where UK strength is concentrated

Major clusters

  • Bristol & Bath

    Semiconductor design, robotics, aerospace and quantum in one small geography

  • Belfast

    Cyber security, advanced composites, fintech and screen production

  • Southampton & Portsmouth

    Maritime engineering, defence, photonics and marine autonomy

Emerging & supporting clusters

Research, infrastructure and capital

Universities & research

Defence research establishments, cyber research centres and university defence partnerships.

Investment

Primarily programme funding, prime contractor supply chains and specialist funds.

Government support

Defence is a priority sector with dedicated national programmes.

Organisations working in this area

  • King's College London

    Universities · london

  • The Alan Turing Institute

    Research institutes · london

  • Queen's University Belfast

    Universities · belfast

  • Centre for Secure Information Technologies

    Innovation & Knowledge Centres · belfast

  • University of Southampton

    Universities · southampton portsmouth

UKIZ perspective

Infrastructure (0)

  • No facility recorded yet.

Accelerators (0)

  • No accelerator recorded yet.

Procurement is the fastest route from research to deployment. UKIZ proposes using demand, not grants, as the primary connector.

Ecosystem directory

Who funds, builds and researches this in Britain.

Investors (0)

  • No investor record yet for this industry.

Companies (7)

Universities (3)

Directory last verified: 15 August 2026

Related proposed zones

Proposed by UKIZ · not a government designation