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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.

Choose up to three clusters

Side by side

Dimension	Teesside & the HumberNorth East / Yorkshire and the Humber	Bristol & BathSouth West	Cornwall & PlymouthSouth West
Sectors	Clean Energy, Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Materials Supporting: Digital Technologies, AgriTech & FoodTech	Semiconductors, Robotics & Autonomous Systems, Quantum Technologies, Defence & Security Supporting: Creative Industries, Advanced Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Clean Energy	Space, Clean Energy, Robotics & Autonomous Systems Supporting: Advanced Materials, AgriTech & FoodTech, Digital Technologies
Research	Not recorded on the map.	University of Bristol University of the West of England Bristol Robotics Laboratory	University of Plymouth Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Companies	Not recorded on the map.	Bristol semiconductor and processor design cluster	Not recorded on the map.
Infrastructure	Centre for Process Innovation Process innovation and biologics scale-up facilities, port capacity and grid-connected industrial land.	National Composites Centre Quantum and robotics laboratories, national composites facilities and aerospace test capability.	Space and Earth observation capability, Cornwall Aerodrome and space capability, marine research and test facilities and naval infrastructure.
Capital	Infrastructure capital, corporate investment and public programmes; almost no local venture base.	An established angel and seed base with strong deep tech interest; growth rounds usually come from London or the US.	Public programmes and a small local investor base; almost all growth capital is external.
Government programmes	Teesside Freeport — Freeports Humber Freeport — Freeports	No place-based designation recorded.	No place-based designation recorded.
What exists	The largest concentration of industrial decarbonisation activity in the UK: hydrogen, carbon capture, process manufacturing, biologics scale-up capability and two Freeports with substantial serviced industrial land.	Semiconductor and processor design, quantum engineering, robotics and autonomous systems, aerospace and composites, and a creative and screen economy of national significance.	Space launch and Earth observation capability, marine autonomy and ocean research, and a distinctive combination of coastline, test space and specialist facilities.
What's missing · UKIZ interpretation	Skills pipelines and company formation. The land, power and permits exist; the innovation companies and the technical workforce to fill them do not yet exist at the same scale.	Fabrication and volume production capacity to match the design strength, and hardware-friendly capital. Companies scale by moving production abroad.	Company density and connectivity. Excellent facilities sit a long way from capital, customers and complementary suppliers, and skilled people are hard to retain.
What could connect · UKIZ interpretation	Industrial land and process scale-up capability connected to research clusters elsewhere that have technologies without a place to build them — a national scale-up site rather than a regional one.	Bristol design capability connected to South Wales compound semiconductor fabrication and to composites and aerospace manufacturing — a western technology corridor with a complete chain.	Launch and Earth observation connected to Glasgow satellite manufacture and Harwell applications, and marine autonomy connected to Solent defence and offshore energy demand.
UKIZ relevance	This is where Britain either builds an energy supply chain or imports one. The proposed Teesside & Humber mission is explicitly about retained industrial capability.	Bristol's design and robotics capability has historically been acquired rather than scaled. The proposed zone concentrates on the capital and customer connections that let companies stay independent.	The proposed Cornwall & Devon mission treats the sea and the satellite economy as one system rather than two separate sectors.
Last verified	15 August 2026	15 August 2026	15 August 2026

Proposed by UKIZ · independent · not a government designation

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