This project for the Department for Innovation, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was completed by Dr Mike Anyadike-Danes with support from Professor Mark Hart. The research provided an overview of industrial clusters in the UK and their spatial distribution. A report was submitted to BIS in August 2013.

The background to the project is that the DTI published a report in 2001 that identified and mapped UK industrial clusters that existed at the time, and this project aimed to update and extend this analysis to gain a fuller understanding of our current industrial clusters. The project aimed to identify existing clusters by industry, region and sub-region, to examine the detailed geography of our existing clusters and to highlight the relative industrial strengths of particular areas. The project used data from the Business Structures Database and is closely related to other work being conducted as part of Research Theme 6 on business demographics.

By updating and extending the quantitative elements of the 2001 DTI study the study aimed to provide an assessment of sectoral/spatial strengths from a national and international perspective based on employment and firm numbers (official and commercial datasets). This updated the 2001 report and conducted analysis at lower sub-national levels e.g. LEP, City Region, Local Authority.