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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.

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Side by side

Dimension	Birmingham & the West MidlandsWest Midlands	ManchesterNorth West	Newcastle & the North EastNorth East
Sectors	Mobility & Transport Technology, Advanced Manufacturing, Quantum Technologies, Advanced Materials Supporting: Clean Energy, Digital Technologies, Defence & Security	Advanced Materials, Life Sciences, Digital Technologies, Creative Industries Supporting: Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Manufacturing, Financial Technology, Engineering Biology	Clean Energy, Mobility & Transport Technology, Advanced Manufacturing Supporting: Life Sciences, Digital Technologies, Robotics & Autonomous Systems
Research	University of Birmingham University of Warwick WMG	The University of Manchester Manchester Metropolitan University National Graphene Institute Greater Manchester health innovation partnership	Newcastle University Durham University
Companies	Not recorded on the map.	Not recorded on the map.	Not recorded on the map.
Infrastructure	Energy Systems Catapult UK Battery Industrialisation Centre Automotive research centres, battery and vehicle test facilities and major logistics assets.	MediaCity Advanced manufacturing Catapult capability, North West National materials and graphene facilities, teaching hospitals and clinical research capability, and a major broadcast production estate.	Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult Offshore renewable test facilities, battery production investment and university research centres.
Capital	Corporate and supply chain finance dominate; venture capital is thin relative to industrial output.	A growing regional investor base and northern funds, with growth rounds usually led from London.	Infrastructure and development finance, with limited venture capital relative to industrial scale.
Government programmes	West Midlands Investment Zone — Investment Zones	No place-based designation recorded.	North East Investment Zone — Investment Zones
What exists	The largest manufacturing base in the UK by employment, automotive and electrification engineering, rail and mobility research, and a young, large working-age population.	Advanced materials research including graphene and 2D materials, a large health innovation base built on hospitals and universities, a substantial digital and cyber economy, and the biggest broadcast and creative cluster outside London.	Offshore renewable energy testing at national scale, battery and electrification investment, ageing and life sciences research and a strong engineering base.
What's missing · UKIZ interpretation	Ownership of the value in electrified vehicles: battery, power electronics and software increasingly sit outside the region and outside the UK. Innovation-active SME supply chains are under-capitalised.	The step from materials discovery to volume production, and a growth capital base proportionate to the research output. Health data at population scale is under-used by industry.	Supply chain retention. Britain builds offshore capacity while importing much of the equipment; local firms often serve as installers rather than manufacturers.
What could connect · UKIZ interpretation	Midlands manufacturing paired with battery and power electronics research, North East battery production and Coventry testing capability as a single electrification value chain.	Materials research connected to Sheffield and Midlands manufacturing, and health innovation connected to Leeds health data capability — a corridor rather than three separate cities.	Offshore testing capability connected to Teesside and Humber industrial land, Sheffield manufacturing research and domestic energy buyers — an energy supply chain rather than an energy market.
UKIZ relevance	The region's transition depends on owning the new value in a vehicle rather than assembling someone else's. The proposed Midlands zone focuses on batteries, power electronics and software.	Manchester has scale in four different economies that rarely commission from each other. The proposed zone concentrates on connecting health, materials, digital and creative capability around shared missions.	The region has the industrial land, the ports and the skills base. The proposed North East mission focuses on retaining the supply chain, not only the assembly.
Last verified	15 August 2026	15 August 2026	15 August 2026

Proposed by UKIZ · independent · not a government designation

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