Clusters in West Midlands, UK

The West Midlands in the UK, like many of regions across the world, is concentrating its efforts is to develop 'business clusters'.

Clusters are groups of businesses and related organisations linked through a common technology or an end product. They include suppliers and specialist educational institutions, involved with industry (or cluster) - related training and research.

The 10 clusters that have been identified as being most relevant to the ongoing development of the West Midlands, and are split into:

* Established clusters: e.g. food and drink and transport technologies. The emphasis here is helping these clusters to diversify and modernise.

* Growing clusters: e.g. information and communication technology, environmental technologies. These are already showing signs of growth.

* Embryonic or aspirational clusters: e.g. Interactive media for education and entertainment, medical technologies. These are good prospects for growth.

Stimulating the growth of these clusters involves:

* identifying market opportunities through market research

* encouraging collaborative efforts within clusters e.g. skills development, sharing of research efforts, etc.

The Transport Technologies cluster is perhaps the most important in the West Midlands employing about 175,000 people. It includes commodity manufacture of metal and polymer components, metal processes/ treatments, electrical/electronic/mechanical sub systems and vehicles. There are high concentrations of activity including the Jaguar plant at Castle Bromwich.

This cluster is identifying opportunities for focusing on higher value added activities, based on new technologies and in luxury cars, motor sports and materials to improve products through design. There are many opportunities for technology transfer between different modes of transport and also in the use of new materials that lessen environmental impact.

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