Connected research ecosystem powers UK industry
Universities UK (UUK) member universities have significant research capabilities across the growth-driving sectors at the heart of the Modern Industrial Strategy.
Published in 2025, the Industrial Strategy identifies eight growth-driving sectors alongside wider priorities.
This analysis focuses on research produced by UUK member universities that can support those ambitions and the research assets on which the UK can build. The accompanying dashboard maps UUK member university research outputs from 2021 to 2025 across seven of the eight sectors, provides a view across different parts of the UK, and allows users to explore more granular government-defined frontier industries within those sectors.
The dashboard identifies publications associated with each sector and uses measures including publication volume, citation impact and research specialisation to show different dimensions of research strength. Specialisation reflects how concentrated a place's research is in a particular sector relative to the UK overall, rather than the absolute volume of research produced. Defence is excluded from the accompanying dashboard because a significant share of directly defence-related work is classified and does not appear in publication data, making publication-based mapping less reliable for this sector than for the others.
This analysis should be read as one part of a wider evidence base, rather than a definitive assessment of research strengths across individual regions or nations, or the UK as a whole. It does not capture factors such as infrastructure, training and skills, research funding flows, unpublished industry R&D, the creation and value of spinouts, or future investment intentions, all of which can shape how research capability translates into economic and societal impact.
Differences in the granularity and categorisation of underlying business data can also mean that some types of economic activity are undercounted or do not appear in the expected sector. In addition, some business activity may be attributed to a company's registered headquarters, and some research from multi-campus institutions to a main campus, rather than to the place where the activity or research actually took place. The dashboard is therefore best used alongside the other evidence described here and supplemented with local knowledge and expertise.
In each of the seven sectors covered in the dashboard, UUK member university research is cited more often than the world average.
The scale is substantial. Among the seven sectors covered in the dashboard, Digital and Technologies has the largest body of associated research, with more than 128,000 UUK member university publications relating to the sector between 2021 and 2025, and citation impact 51% above the world average. UUK member universities produced nearly 92,000 publications related to Life Sciences in the same period, which has the highest citation impact of the seven publicly mapped sectors, at around 170% above the world average.
There is momentum too. Financial Services research grew faster than any other sector, increasing by 36.2% over five years, although from a lower publication base than the larger sectors. Much of that growth is outside London. The North East has the UK's most specialised Financial Services research profile, meaning Financial Services research makes up a larger share of its overall research base than elsewhere in the UK at this level of analysis. Life Sciences presents a different picture, combining the highest citation impact of the seven publicly mapped sectors with a 4.9% decline in research output over the period.
Analysis from Universities UK (UUK) and Elsevier brings these patterns together. It reveals a research base that is built over time, distributed across the UK and increasingly connected across sectors and places. Rather than eight separate industries supported by isolated centres of expertise, the picture is one of a connected research ecosystem, with capabilities in different places and disciplines reinforcing one another.
Universities' contribution extends beyond publication performance. UUK cites an estimated £63 billion economic impact from research and knowledge exchange in 2021/22. Research strengths also span disciplines beyond the IS-8, helping give the UK the breadth and agility to respond to future opportunities and sources of growth.
Many of these capabilities were developing before the eight growth-driving sectors were formally defined in the Industrial Strategy, reflecting universities’ long-standing role in driving innovation and growth rather than simply responding to the strategy. Their geography is also more diverse than UK-wide totals alone might suggest.
Together, the findings tell a simple story: the UK already has many of the research capabilities its future industries need. The opportunity is to build on them, connect them and give them room to develop. Looking at research strength alongside regional economic strength also helps show where future potential may lie: where capabilities already align, where research can reinforce an economic strength, and where distinctive research expertise could support new growth.
Explore research across the seven sectors covered in the dashboard →
Published in 2025, the Industrial Strategy identifies eight growth-driving sectors alongside wider priorities.
This analysis focuses on research produced by UUK member universities that can support those ambitions and the research assets on which the UK can build. The accompanying dashboard maps UUK member university research outputs from 2021 to 2025 across seven of the eight sectors, provides a view across different parts of the UK, and allows users to explore more granular government-defined frontier industries within those sectors.
The dashboard identifies publications associated with each sector and uses measures including publication volume, citation impact and research specialisation to show different dimensions of research strength. Specialisation reflects how concentrated a place's research is in a particular sector relative to the UK overall, rather than the absolute volume of research produced. Defence is excluded from the accompanying dashboard because a significant share of directly defence-related work is classified and does not appear in publication data, making publication-based mapping less reliable for this sector than for the others.
This analysis should be read as one part of a wider evidence base, rather than a definitive assessment of research strengths across individual regions or nations, or the UK as a whole. It does not capture factors such as infrastructure, training and skills, research funding flows, unpublished industry R&D, the creation and value of spinouts, or future investment intentions, all of which can shape how research capability translates into economic and societal impact.
Differences in the granularity and categorisation of underlying business data can also mean that some types of economic activity are undercounted or do not appear in the expected sector. In addition, some business activity may be attributed to a company's registered headquarters, and some research from multi-campus institutions to a main campus, rather than to the place where the activity or research actually took place. The dashboard is therefore best used alongside the other evidence described here and supplemented with local knowledge and expertise.
In each of the seven sectors covered in the dashboard, UUK member university research is cited more often than the world average.
The scale is substantial. Among the seven sectors covered in the dashboard, Digital and Technologies has the largest body of associated research, with more than 128,000 UUK member university publications relating to the sector between 2021 and 2025, and citation impact 51% above the world average. UUK member universities produced nearly 92,000 publications related to Life Sciences in the same period, which has the highest citation impact of the seven publicly mapped sectors, at around 170% above the world average.
There is momentum too. Financial Services research grew faster than any other sector, increasing by 36.2% over five years, although from a lower publication base than the larger sectors. Much of that growth is outside London. The North East has the UK's most specialised Financial Services research profile, meaning Financial Services research makes up a larger share of its overall research base than elsewhere in the UK at this level of analysis. Life Sciences presents a different picture, combining the highest citation impact of the seven publicly mapped sectors with a 4.9% decline in research output over the period.
Analysis from Universities UK (UUK) and Elsevier brings these patterns together. It reveals a research base that is built over time, distributed across the UK and increasingly connected across sectors and places. Rather than eight separate industries supported by isolated centres of expertise, the picture is one of a connected research ecosystem, with capabilities in different places and disciplines reinforcing one another.
Universities' contribution extends beyond publication performance. UUK cites an estimated £63 billion economic impact from research and knowledge exchange in 2021/22. Research strengths also span disciplines beyond the IS-8, helping give the UK the breadth and agility to respond to future opportunities and sources of growth.
Many of these capabilities were developing before the eight growth-driving sectors were formally defined in the Industrial Strategy, reflecting universities’ long-standing role in driving innovation and growth rather than simply responding to the strategy. Their geography is also more diverse than UK-wide totals alone might suggest.
Together, the findings tell a simple story: the UK already has many of the research capabilities its future industries need. The opportunity is to build on them, connect them and give them room to develop. Looking at research strength alongside regional economic strength also helps show where future potential may lie: where capabilities already align, where research can reinforce an economic strength, and where distinctive research expertise could support new growth.
Explore research across the seven sectors covered in the dashboard →
Chart: UK university research combines scale, impact and momentum across growth sectors
Source: Scopus • Credit: Elsevier
Citation impact (vs global avg.)
"These insights show how the rich diversity of research across the UK drives growth in the economic sectors of interest to Government."
Professor Sarah Main, VP, Global Research Collaboration Unit, Elsevier
Research strengths built over time
The research capabilities relevant to the Industrial Strategy did not emerge when the eight sectors were defined at its publication in 2025.
The analysis covers UUK member university research between 2021 and 2025, providing a baseline of capabilities already developing as the Industrial Strategy took shape. It is therefore a picture of accumulated research capability, rather than a measure of the strategy's effects. It provides insight into research assets on which the UK can build across the sectors covered in the dashboard.
Digital Twin Technology provides one example. UUK member universities produced 751 publications in the field during this period, with research activity more than twice the world level and citation impact above the global benchmark.
Materials discovery tells a similar story. Machine learning and predictive modelling are changing how new materials can be identified and designed. UUK member university research in this area combines high international prominence with citation impact above the world benchmark.
These capabilities have relevance beyond the Advanced Manufacturing and Digital and Technologies sectors. Digital technologies and advanced materials can also support Clean Energy Industries and other strategic sectors.
The pattern demonstrates an important characteristic of research: expertise takes time to build, while its eventual applications cannot always be predicted.
The fact that strategically relevant capabilities were already developing before the Industrial Strategy was published illustrates the value of a broad research ecosystem capable of developing expertise ahead of clearly defined future applications.
Different places, complementary strengths
UK-wide research strength is built from capabilities distributed across different places. Looking at specialisation rather than simply research volume reveals some less obvious parts of that picture.
Research specialisation shows how concentrated a region or nation's research is in a sector relative to the UK wide level average. It is a relative measure of concentration, not an absolute publication total or a per-capita measure. On that measure, the West Midlands has the UK's highest research specialisation in Advanced Manufacturing, while Yorkshire and the Humber has the highest in Creative Industries. Northern Ireland and London also show relatively specialised Life Sciences research profiles. These comparisons use specialisation levels that can be measured at a statistically reliable level.
North East England has the highest research specialisation in Financial Services, while the East Midlands has the highest in Professional and Business Services, where Management Consultancy is a particular research strength.
These findings are not a ranking of performance between places.
London illustrates the distinction. It produces more UUK member university research than any other part of the UK at this level of analysis across the sectors covered here, but its broad research base means it is less specialised in several individual areas. This reflects the breadth of London's research profile rather than weaker research.
The more revealing picture is one of complementary capabilities across different places.
The Midlands has a particularly clear Advanced Manufacturing story. Research specialisation is high in both the West and East Midlands, while available economic indicators also point towards above-average manufacturing activity. West Central and East Central Scotland are among the more specialised regions in Digital and Technologies.
North West England brings another combination. Greater Manchester has above-average specialisation in Clean Energy and Advanced Manufacturing, while the wider North West has one of the UK's more specialised Life Sciences research profiles.
Chart: Different parts of the UK have different university research specialisms
Source: Scopus • Credit: Elsevier
Alignment within individual places is only part of the picture. Research undertaken in one place can support UK-wide priorities, businesses and collaborators elsewhere, address global challenges, and generate health, social and cultural benefits that this analysis does not measure.
Research ecosystems also extend beyond administrative boundaries. Universities and other institutions in different places collaborate through consortia and partnerships, so research undertaken in one place can contribute to UK-wide priorities and wider economic and societal value. For multi-campus institutions, publication records may not always identify the specific campus where research was undertaken, so fine-grained geographic patterns should be interpreted with appropriate caution.
Strengths in different places are therefore better understood as parts of a connected UK-wide system rather than self-contained local economies.
Research that connects industries
The strategic sectors may be distinct parts of the economy, but the research supporting them is increasingly interconnected.
Artificial intelligence provides perhaps the clearest example. AI and machine learning supports the Digital and Technologies sector, but also contributes to materials discovery in Advanced Manufacturing, clinical prediction in Life Sciences, and organisational decision-making in Professional and Business Services.
Advanced materials connect Advanced Manufacturing and Clean Energy Industries. Autonomous and sensing technologies connect Manufacturing and Digital, while climate-related research creates links between Clean Energy, Financial Services and Professional and Business Services.
One capability, multiple industries
AI and Data
Digital | Manufacturing | Life Sciences | Business Services
Advanced materials
Manufacturing | Clean Energy
Autonomous and sensing technologies
Manufacturing | Digital
Climate and net zero
Clean Energy | Financial Services | Business Services
Research strength and growth potential across places
Across the UK, looking at university research strength and place-based economic activity together reveals more than alignment. It can help identify different kinds of potential: existing alignment where both are strong; strategic opportunity where economic strength could be matched by deeper research and innovation links; and niche research strength where universities are strong ahead of the local economic footprint. Where the measures diverge, the comparison is best treated as a prompt for further investigation rather than evidence of an opportunity on its own.
Advanced Manufacturing in the West Midlands illustrates existing alignment. The region has the UK's highest research specialisation in Advanced Manufacturing and above-average economic specialisation in the sector, as measured by the Economic Activity Index.
North West England provides another example at the same geographical level. Research and economic specialisation are both above the UK average in Advanced Manufacturing and Life Sciences.
Other places show different relationships between research and economic activity. North East England combines the UK's highest Financial Services research specialisation with below-average economic specialisation in the sector. London shows a research-led pattern in Life Sciences. These contrasts identify questions for further investigation rather than, on their own, evidence of a growth opportunity.
These patterns are not a ranking of success or failure. Their value is in showing where strengths already reinforce one another and where gaps may point to potential.
For most sectors, the economic measure is a partial proxy based on registered business activity. It does not capture the full economic footprint of a sector. Note that Clean Energy Industries has no comparable economic proxy. Differences in business-data coverage and categorisation mean that some frontier industries or forms of activity may be undercounted or may not appear in the expected sector. The measure also reflects where businesses are registered, including the location of a company's headquarters, rather than necessarily where their activity takes place. Apparent gaps or low levels of economic activity should therefore be treated as prompts for further investigation rather than definitive evidence that activity is absent.
Rather than a verdict on performance between places, the comparison provides one part of the evidence for understanding place-based strengths, gaps and opportunities, and for identifying where further investigation or investment may be worthwhile.
Research capability sits within a wider ecosystem alongside skills, physical and digital infrastructure, private-sector demand, investment and the capacity to absorb and scale innovation. Looking at these conditions together can help reveal where existing research strength provides a foundation and what else may be needed to build from it.
Chart: University research and regional economic activity
Source: Scopus • Credit: Elsevier
From research strength to wider value
University research connects beyond academia in different ways.
Looking within the broad sectors at more specific research topics reveals additional pathways to value. The examples below are illustrative rather than exhaustive and should not be read as a ranking of institutions, places or topics.
In Life Sciences, research into Antibody-Drug Conjugates combines substantial business collaboration with a notable share of publications cited in patents. Research on the Impact of Automation on Employment, meanwhile, has been particularly visible in public policy, with more than four in ten identified UK publications cited in policy documents.
These examples illustrate different pathways from research to wider value. No single indicator captures the full contribution of research.
Universities can also contribute in another way: by connecting knowledge, people, businesses and public institutions within place-based innovation ecosystems.
The analysis does not measure this wider convening role, but making research capabilities visible can help partners in different places understand the foundations they have to build on. That evidence can support conversations about priorities, partnerships, infrastructure and skills.
Giving research strength room to develop
Many capabilities relevant to the eight strategic sectors were already developing before the Industrial Strategy was published.
Research expertise is built over years through people, infrastructure, collaboration and accumulated knowledge, while its future applications are not always clear at the outset.
Today's enabling research may underpin several industries in the future.
For UUK, this reinforces the importance of flexible funding alongside strategic investment.
Strategic investment can address UK-wide priorities, infrastructure needs and opportunities for translation. Flexibility allows universities to sustain expertise, drive discoveries, pursue emerging opportunities and connect ideas across disciplines and sectors.
The analysis provides evidence that government and policymakers can use when considering how to advance the Industrial Strategy, including where investment could reinforce existing alignment, develop strategic opportunities, or help distinctive research strengths translate into wider economic value.
Building on the UK's research strengths
The findings point towards several opportunities.
Build from existing capability. Different parts of the UK have developed research strengths that can provide foundations for collaboration, investment and growth. Differences between research and economic profiles can also be informative, identifying areas that merit closer attention and further investigation.
Connect complementary places. Different places can contribute different expertise to the same strategic sector, connecting research, development, application and scale-up.
Think across sectors. Capabilities such as AI, advanced materials and data-intensive science can support several strategic industries at once.
Connect research with the wider ecosystem. Skills, infrastructure, investment, private-sector demand and collaboration all shape how research capability contributes to place-based opportunity.
Give research room to evolve. Flexibility alongside strategic investment can help sustain expertise while allowing new opportunities and applications to emerge.
"The UK has significant research strengths relevant to the industries that will drive future growth. The opportunity is to make those strengths more visible, making it easier for industry and other partners to find the capabilities they need."
Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, University of Manchester
A connected research ecosystem powers UK industry
Research undertaken in one place can contribute to growth and wellbeing elsewhere. Strengths in individual places can support UK-wide priorities, while UK-wide research capability can create opportunities for individual places.
The picture that emerges is not of separate industries supported by a handful of research centres. It is of a connected UK-wide research ecosystem, built from distinctive capabilities across the UK, with universities helping to create and connect the knowledge on which the industries of tomorrow can grow.
Explore the research landscape
The dashboard can help universities, businesses, local and regional authorities, funders and devolved administrations explore shared capabilities across the seven sectors included in the public view and consider how research strengths connect across different parts of the UK.
It provides a starting point for asking where research and economic strengths align, where further investigation may reveal potential, and what could help places realise more of it.
A connected research ecosystem powers UK industry
Research undertaken in one place can contribute to growth and wellbeing elsewhere. Strengths in individual places can support UK-wide priorities, while UK-wide research capability can create opportunities for individual places.
The picture that emerges is not of separate industries supported by a handful of research centres. It is of a connected UK-wide research ecosystem, built from distinctive capabilities across the UK, with universities helping to create and connect the knowledge on which the industries of tomorrow can grow.
Explore the research landscape
The dashboard can help universities, businesses, local and regional authorities, funders and devolved administrations explore shared capabilities across the seven sectors included in the public view and consider how research strengths connect across different parts of the UK.
It provides a starting point for asking where research and economic strengths align, where further investigation may reveal potential, and what could help places realise more of it.