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The UK Government has today launched a new Innovation Cluster Map, which forms part of a fresh drive to encourage pensions firms to commit more of their private investment toward the country’s science and technology sectors, which could include anything from research into new vaccines and medicines to AI or future satellite broadband technologies etc.
According to the Science Minister, Lord Vallance, some $16bn was invested into UK start-ups and scale-ups last year (we’re not sure why they’re using dollars), and more than $8bn has been raised in the first half of 2025 – exceeding France and Germany combined. But the government wants to see more money going toward this field as part of efforts to boost growth via their ‘Plan for Change’.
In order to support pension firms to invest with clarity, the Government has introduced its new Innovation Cluster Map, which is said to outline pockets of outstanding research and commerce across different parts of the UK (i.e. helping investors to better identify the companies, sectors and regions of the UK to target for investment).
The map identifies areas (clusters) and regions where networks of businesses and research institutions are benefitting from close proximity to one another, boosting the effects of research, development, and innovation. “This means investors know where to seek out expertise and crucially how to make the most of the skills that exist around the country,” said the announcement.
Science Minister, Lord Vallance, said:
“There are far too many UK companies operating at the cutting-edge of emerging technologies, like AI, biotechnology and quantum to which UK investors are underexposed.
Through our Industrial Strategy, we are building an environment where public funding, streamlined regulation and partnerships with industry are channelling investment into science and technology.
Encouraging greater flows of capital into the sector is another piece of the puzzle, supporting companies to grow and jobs to be created.”
The map may be of some use to investors, although it appears to only give quite a high-level view across some fairly wide geographic areas, usually accompanied by various statistics. In that sense it seems to be more of a starting point for roughly locating areas of interest for investment, although beyond that its applications appear to be quite limited.