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
- London
Capital, regulation, AI and the creative economy in one place
- Birmingham & the West Midlands
Automotive, batteries, quantum sensing and a deep manufacturing supply chain
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
Research centres (2)
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)
- Darktrace
Cambridge · Established company
- Improbable
London · Scale-up
- Sheffield Forgemasters
Sheffield & Rotherham · Established company
- Kromek
Newcastle & the North East · Scale-up
- Thales Belfast
Belfast · Large corporate
- BAE Systems Maritime, Portsmouth
Southampton & Portsmouth · Large corporate
- Rolls-Royce, Derby
Nottingham & Derby · Large corporate
Universities (3)
- King's College London
London
- Durham University
Newcastle & the North East
- Queen's University Belfast
Belfast
Directory last verified: 15 August 2026
Related proposed zones
Proposed by UKIZ · not a government designation
Sources
- Department for Science, Innovation & Technology — UK Innovation Clusters Map
- UK Research and Innovation — Research and innovation infrastructure, centres, institutes and Catapults
- Catapult Network — Catapult centres and specialisms
- GOV.UK — Investment Zones, Freeports and AI Growth Zones