Your cluster is forming. The data says it isn't.

We find it anyway.

The sectors UKRI most wants to fund don't exist in any national register.

Extended reality. Responsible AI. Robotics and haptics. Human-computer interaction. Audio, visual, speech. Creative health.

These sectors form at the intersection of disciplines; they sit between every classification that exists.

ONS can't see them; Companies House can't classify them; IDBR won't find them.

An XR studio for cultural heritage, a responsible AI lab, a haptics company for live performance are all filed under SIC 62012 - the same code as the IT consultancy that isn't your cluster.

Conventional data puts them in the same bucket. A UKRI cluster bid can't afford that mistake.

We built a system for exactly this.

Our detection approach finds patterns in your geography before anyone has named the sector before any SIC code exists for it.

We go beyond business registration data, combining:

- Company filings and network relationships

- Workforce and skills signals

- Production and project data

- Investment and funding flows

- Research and IP linkages

The result is a map of your cluster as it actually exists, not as the official data says it doesn't.

Configured around your brief, not ours.

Geography

Any combination of local authorities, combined authorities, or custom areas.

Sectors

Core creative definition plus any cross-sector lens the call requires: createch, extended reality, responsible AI, visitor economy, music, dance, defence supply chain.

Lenses

AHRC/EPSRC intersection. Immersive technologies. Responsible machine vision. You specify.

Counterfactual

What would the geography look like without the cluster? We build that too. UKRI's additionality requirements need it answered directly, not implied.

What you get:

A complete, submission-ready evidence package:

- Cluster boundary definition and firm-level dataset

- Sector composition and emergent sector identification

- Workforce and skills analysis

- Network and relationship mapping

- Counterfactual modelling

- Executive summary formatted for UKRI assessment panels

Report delivered in four weeks, from start to finish.

Week 1 — Brief, geography, and sector definition

Week 2 — Data extraction and network analysis

Week 3 — Emergent sector detection and validation

Week 4 — Report, dataset, and submission materials

Talk to us about your bid.

We work with a small number of cluster bids at a time. If you're planning a submission to an AHRC or EPSRC cluster call, contact us now.

Creative Economy

Mapping, measuring and growing creative economies across the UK and internationally. Our work helps places understand their creative industries, networks, capacity and potential for growth.

Placemaking & Regeneration

Strategic frameworks for cities, towns and regions seeking to use culture and creativity to support economic growth, investment and renewal.

Arts, Culture & Heritage

Strategies, research and development work that help cultural and heritage organisations articulate their value, strengthen their position and contribute to the places they serve.

The Fifth Sector

Edward Pavilion, Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AF

Tel: 0151 203 3004‍ ‍Email: culture@thefifthsector.co.uk. Registered in England & Wales: 07539809