Already world-famous for its university, the growing importance of the UK knowledge economy has seen Cambridge achieve greater and greater success. The UK Competitiveness Index has ranked Cambridge the 5th most competitive city in the UK. The prevalence of highly innovative graduate businesses in the region has moved South Cambridgeshire into the top 25 regions for the first time, and Cities Outlook 2010 recognised Cambridge as being the city with the highest proportion of graduates in the country.
Cambridge University
The Cambridge University brand plays a major role in the city’s success, consistently topping league tables, particularly in the sciences. More graduates are staying in the region and developing businesses in and around the Cambridge area following their university experience, resulting in a high knowledge-based economy of entrepreneurs, and a city with a reputation for academic excellence.
The Cambridge Phenomenon
The high technology cluster operating in Cambridge is one example of how this knowledge base is translating into commercial success. Dubbed ‘The Cambridge Phenomenon’ by Peta Levi in the Financial Times in 1980, technology companies have been flourishing in the Cambridge region for nearly four decades. There are approximately 1,400 high-tech companies employing 43,000 people in the region, almost doubling in 30 years to make the region the scientific research and development capital of the UK today. Cambridge has five times more R&D jobs than the UK average according to Cambridge Investment Research 2008.
Competitive Advantages
Cambridge continues to grow in competitiveness according to the UK Competitiveness Index. Despite the recession, Cambridge has continued to improve by 0.6 of a point in the last year. The index measures a variety of factors including R&D expenditure, business start-up rates, number of overall businesses, and output per hour worked. Taking all this into account, Cambridge has been titled the 5th most competitive city in the UK, topping Edinburgh, Oxford and Manchester. Despite a relatively small population, the high density of top-quality graduates, and the prevalence of the Cambridge Phenomenon, mark the city as one to watch for opportunities in the next few years, with the Cambridge High Tech Cluster expected to remain at the heart of its development.
Nigel Brown OBE, Chairman of the Greater Cambridge Partnership said: "The report is a useful benchmark for what Greater Cambridge has achieved to date, but also highlights that this is no time to be complacent, we must develop and support new technologies, such as Cleantech, as the next wave of the cluster."
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