Existing ecosystem · North East / Yorkshire and the Humber
Teesside & the Humber Innovation Ecosystem
Teesside and the Humber form Britain's largest industrial decarbonisation geography, combining chemicals and process industry heritage with hydrogen, carbon capture and offshore wind manufacturing.
What is Teesside & the Humber good at?
- Hydrogen and carbon capture projects
- Offshore wind manufacturing and installation
- Process and chemicals engineering
- Large-scale industrial land and port capacity
UKIZ analysis
What exists
Drawn from public sources
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.
What's missing
UKIZ interpretation · proposal
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.
What could connect
UKIZ interpretation · proposal
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.
The ecosystem
Specialist infrastructure
Centre for Process InnovationCatapult centres
High Value Manufacturing Catapult centre for process and biologics scale-up.
Government programmes
Teesside FreeportFreeports
Government-designated Freeport covering major industrial and port land.
Humber FreeportFreeports
Government-designated Freeport covering ports and industrial sites on the Humber.
Connectivity & data
Connectivity
Some of the largest port capacity in the UK, with direct North Sea access.
Relevant data
Government publishes Freeport designations and tax site boundaries for both areas.
Capital, infrastructure & government support
Capital
Infrastructure capital, corporate investment and public programmes; almost no local venture base.
Infrastructure
Process innovation and biologics scale-up facilities, port capacity and grid-connected industrial land.
Government support
Teesside and Humber Freeports with customs and tax sites, plus decarbonisation programmes.
What could connect elsewhere in Britain
UKIZ interpretation. Places whose capability relates to Teesside & the Humber, and why connecting them could create more value than either can create alone.
- Nottingham & Derby
Both carry Clean Energy and Advanced Manufacturing as a leading strength. Depth in the same field in two places usually means duplicated effort rather than a shared pipeline — the connection worth making is a division of labour between discovery, production and demand.
Compare Teesside & the Humber and Nottingham & Derby → - Birmingham & the West Midlands
Both carry Advanced Manufacturing and Advanced Materials as a leading strength. Depth in the same field in two places usually means duplicated effort rather than a shared pipeline — the connection worth making is a division of labour between discovery, production and demand.
Compare Teesside & the Humber and Birmingham & the West Midlands → - Sheffield & Rotherham
Both carry Advanced Manufacturing and Advanced Materials as a leading strength. Depth in the same field in two places usually means duplicated effort rather than a shared pipeline — the connection worth making is a division of labour between discovery, production and demand.
Compare Teesside & the Humber and Sheffield & Rotherham → - Cardiff & South Wales
Both carry Advanced Materials as a leading strength. Depth in the same field in two places usually means duplicated effort rather than a shared pipeline — the connection worth making is a division of labour between discovery, production and demand.
Compare Teesside & the Humber and Cardiff & South Wales →
UKIZ perspective
What this could mean for UKIZ.
This is where Britain either builds an energy supply chain or imports one. The proposed Teesside & Humber mission is explicitly about retained industrial capability.
Related proposed UK Innovation Zones
Proposed by UKIZ · not a government designation
Sources & evidence
Sources & evidence for Teesside & the Humber
- DSIT — UK Innovation Clusters Map
- UKRI — research and innovation infrastructure
- Catapult Network — centres and specialisms
- GOV.UK — place-based programme designations
- ONS — regional and business statistics
Descriptive statements are drawn from these sources. Statements about what is missing and what could connect are UKIZ interpretation and are labelled as such. Inclusion on this map is never sold.
Last verified: 15 August 2026