Overview of UK IT Geographies:
 The UK has had their government sponsor  R&D science parks since the 1970s.They are located all over the UK. Most are near Universities that are funded by the government for R&D. Also there are incubators for internet start-ups with funding not only coming from the government but from venture capital (VCs). Many firms have found success in the IT incubators. Many incubators are part of science parks others are privately held. There are two areas in the UK that have achieved a great level of success. They are Silicon Fen in Cambridge and Silicon Glen in Scotland. These areas have produced software and other IT technologies that are beginning to be exported around the world.

 In the late 1980s, there was British government incentive to create these types of parks near universities in heavily industrialized areas and inner cities that were going through a recession. Two of these areas that were somewhat successful in their development of biotechnology firms were Manchester and Birmingham.[2]

 These two areas are interesting to note because both were highly industrialized and were going through a recession in the 1980’s. These areas still are highly industrial cities. Yet when industry was starting to slow, the British using the surrounding universities created policies that led to intercity science parks. Some of these have not been as successful as the UK would have liked but both Manchester and Birmingham have had some success.[3]

 Birmingham supported by the University of Birmingham has created two bioresearch areas that have found some success as joint ventures between private companies and the university. These two areas are Birmingham Technology Limited and Birmingham Research Park Limited.

 Manchester also has had success in the bio-technical research area. They have set-up parks with joint ventures between the University of Manchester and private companies for R&D research. They have also gotten foreign investment in their science parks from US firms. An example of this is Trafford Park where two US firms have research facilities. These firms are Photronics and Omega Engineering who have helped create some of the most advanced research facilities in the UK.[4]
 Many of the UK universities have science parks. Many have biotech firms, or industrial research firms but all have some IT companies. There are many new parks in the planning stages to just deal with IT issues. Many have  private funding and are havens for incubators in these science parks.

Here is a list of science parks through the UK.

Aberdeen Science & Technology Park
Aberdeen, AB10 1DB.
 
Aberystwyth Science Park
Powys, SY20 8EB

Aston Science Park
Birmingham, B7 4BJ
 
Belasis Hall Technology Park
Stockton on Tees, TS23 4HN
 
Birmingham Research Park
 Institute of Research & Development
 Birmingham, B15 2SQ
 
 Brunel Science Park
  Brunel University
  Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH
 
 Cambridge Science Park
 Cambridge, CB2 2LD
 
  Cardiff Business Technology Centre & Cardiff Medicentre
  Cardiff, CF2 4AY
 
   Chilworth Research Centre
   Southampton, SO16 7JF
 
   Coventry University Technology Park
   Coventry, CV1 5FB
 
   Cranfield Technology Park
    Cranfield University
    Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL
 
     University of Durham Science Park and Mountjoy Research Centre
      Mountjoy Research Centre
      Durham, DH1 3SW
 
      Edinburgh Technopole - The Bush Research Park
      Midlothian EH26 0SB
 
         Elvingston Science Centre
         Edinburgh, EH12 5HD
 
          Heriot-Watt University Research Park
          Edinburgh, EH14 4AP
 
        Highfields Science Park
        Nottingham, NG1 7DW.
 
        Manchester Science Park
        Manchester

         Merseyside Innovation Centre
         Liverpool, L3 5TF
 
            Newcastle Technopole
            Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 6PA

            Newlands Science Park
            Cottingham Road
            Hull, HU6 7RX
 
            The Oxford Science Park
              Magdalen Centre
           Oxford, OX4 4GA
 
           Preston Technology Management Centre
              Lancashire PR1 8UD
 
            St John's Innovation Park
              St John's Innovation Centre Ltd
               Cambridge, CB4 4WS
 
            Scottish Enterprise Technology Park
              Lanarkshire Development Agency
               Bellshill, ML4 3AD
 
            Sheffield Science & Technology Parks
            Sheffield, S1 2NS
 
            Snowdonia Technopole Eryri Ltd
             Gwynedd LL57 4BF
 
            South Bank Technopark
            London, SE1 6LN
 

             Staffordshire Technology Park
              Stafford, ST17 4LA.
 

            Stirling University Innovation Park
          Forthright Innovation - Scion House
          Stirling University Innovation Park,
          Stirling, FK9 4NF
 
            The Surrey Research Park
             Guildford, GU2 5YD
 
          Swansea University Innovation Centre
          Swansea, SA2 7PP
 
            University of Reading Innovation Centre
          Research Support Office
          University of Reading
           Reading, RG6 6AH

            University of Warwick Science Park
          Barclays Venture Centre
           Coventry, CV4 7EZ
 
            Wavertree Technology Park
             Liverpool, L7 9PG
 
            West of Scotland Science Park
            Glasgow, G20 0SP
 
            Westlakes Science & Technology Park
              Cumbria, CA24 3JZ
 
              Wolverhampton Science Park
              Technology Centre
              Wolverhampton, WV10 9RU [5] 
 

 The UK has not only had success in biotech research they also have had some success in the IT area creating their own “Silicon Valley.”  Although they have enjoyed some success ,many critics have charged that they do not have the same mix of venture capital (VC), entrepreneurs, and research facilities to become as successful as the Silicon Valley.  These areas are called Silicon Fen near Cambridge University and Silicon Glen near Glasgow University.

Silicon Fen:
  Cambridge has  been a university on the cutting edge of science and technology since the 1600s. Sir Isaac Newton created the fundamental principle of modern physics there in 1678.[6]  Since then and today great research scientists go to Cambridge to do research and invent create new scientific achievements. So it is no surprise the around Cambridge there are many computer start-ups. They have hopes being the next Silicon Valley. Recently Sir Alec Broers, the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University spoke to many of the high-tech community in Cambridge and said, “Silicon Valley is the 747 of the technology world and Cambridge is that seagull that flies into its engine.”[7]

 This maybe wishful thinking or just a pep talk to the thousands of start-up high tech firms that are in the out lying region of Cambridge called Silicon Fen. Although Silicon Fen is now getting a lot of press, it was started in the early 1970’s out of a similar incentive from the British government. Here they wanted to foster a high-tech area similar to Stanford and Silicon Valley.  So far it has some success with 1,200 high tech firms that employ about 35,000 people.[8]  This union between  Cambridge University and high tech firms was pushed along in 1997 by Microsoft when they created a research facility that was a joint venture between the University and Microsoft.[9]

 Cambridge’s history of partnerships with private firms have foster some successful start-up like Acorn, and ARM. Both of these are start-ups that began in the late 1980s and are flourishing in the Cambridge area. There also is the 3i Group which is an investment-banking group that helps these companies get VC to keep going and to get ready for Initial Public Offerings. There are hundreds of other Dot-coms and other technical companies in the Cambridge area.

 However,  there are not the Suns, Apples, or Intels that can foster the VC investment that has occured in Silicon Valley. Thereare not really any big firms that can return more VC back to this area. Most firms have to go to the US for VC or have offices in the US to take advantage of the US stock markets especially NASDAQ. Many companies in Silicon Fen have to be as big as or hope to be as Sun or Intel. That means they have to be international right from the start. Robin Saxby, CEO of Advanced RISC Machines,  was quoted as saying “ Ninety percent of our business is from outside the UK. I basically live on planes,  and we’ve got offices in Silicon Valley in Los Gatos, Seoul, Tokyo, development in Austin [Texas] and sales and Marketing in the Thames Valley.” [10] So unlike the start of Silicon Valley many of these companies are branching out of Silicon Fen and are looking for foreign investment.

Silicon Glen:

 Silicon Glen is located between Glasgow and Edinburgh along the M8 motorway. This area has been cultivated by Glasgow University and it was fostered  by Scotland’s regional government courting foreign investment. Instead of challenging Silicon Valley Glasgow University invited their firms to come and set-up facilities in the area. Using Irelands lead in attracting software firms into depressed industrial centers, Glasgow attracted such companies as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Sun Microsystems, and other US high-tech firms.[11]

 Scotland has created the Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Software Federation as groups to help foster not only foreign investment but also create Scottish owned high tech firms. This has led investment groups from Silicon Fen as well as Silicon Valley to invest in start-ups in Silicon Glen. This has led to the beginning of some strong software companies. One of these is Vis Interactive created Earthworm Jim, a popular Nintendo and Playstation game. Vis Interactive also helped in the design of Eidos red-hot Tomb raider with the creation of Ms. Croft.[12]

 Also the Scottish government and Glasgow University put pressure on both BT and Scottish Telephone authority to bring broadband to this area quickly in order to foster dot.com startups. This plan has  been somewhat successful and was used as the guide by the British on their plan to foster Internet start-ups. It is hoped that this plan will foster even more software start-ups.[13]

 Even Silicon Glen has not lived up to all its expectations. It does not have the really strong firms as Silicon Valley. It has wooed many of them to have operations in the area but these are mostly manufacturing and not R&D centers as in Silicon Fen. There are very few start-ups that have been successful. Most have been in the entertainment part of the software industry. It was hoped that this area would foster more innovation.

Incubators:

 In London there is new community that some are calling Web Alley. It’s located the near East End where a groups of dot. comers create more E-commerce ventures.[14]  In this maze of E-commerce venture of new media firms are rising of out incubators. One of these new incubators is New MediaSPARK, who has offices in London. This is one of the larger incubators in Britain who are trying to invest venture capital in Internet firms.[15]  One of the problems for the UK and much of Europe is that venture capital markets are much more conservative than in the US.[16]  So many European incubators are crossing country boundaries and have offices across Europe. One of these is GorillaPark, which was originally from Amsterdam, and  has created offices in London. [17]  There are many other European incubators that are seeking to get into the UK market. Many feel that with both Silicon Glen and Silicon Fen the UK has a go to attitude toward IT.[18]

 Conclusion UK’s “Silicon Valleys”:

 Both Silicon Fen and Silicon Glen do have some very successful start-ups but they are not Silicon Valley. They still need the Valley for VC and outside markets. Many of the companies that have started in Silicon Fen have moved to Silicon Valley. Silicon Glen needs to foster more investment in R&D and less in bringing in manufacturing facilities for it to become like a real Silicon Valley. Although there has been an insurgence European Incubators coming into the UK to set-up more IT start-ups, the government through it science and technology parks are creating successful innovations. It is not known if all these investments will lead to the UK becoming the next Silicon Valley.

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