SOUTHAMPTON is one of the most innovative business communities in the UK, figures show.

Figures from the Open Data Institute Index show that Southampton is the 16th most innovative community in the country.

The index, released in the form of an online interactive map, shows the most active innovation clusters in the UK by industry sector.

Data from tech events, meetings and conferences were brought together with figures on research and development spending by local businesses, local skills measures and academic publication to shed light on how British innovation was faring in seven key industrial sectors including artificial intelligence, health, machine learning, manufacturing, Internet of things and virtual reality.

According to the index, Southampton, in fifth, is one of the strongest clusters outside of London for data innovation while it is in ninth spot for internet of things.

It was ranked 16th for both creative and artificial intelligence and 15th and 14th respectively for virtual reality and health.

Southampton weakest sector is manufacturing, where it was 17th.

These findings have surprised researchers as Southampton had a relatively small population, under 300,000, compared to rivals such London and Manchester which has populations of 8.7 million and 2.55 million retrospectively.

Jeni Tennison, CEO at the Open Data Institute, said: “This new research reveals that innovation around data isn’t a London-based phenomenon, with the current methodology highlighting an active community in Southampton.

“Using real-time data to identify clusters should help inform innovation policy, where it’s especially important to respond to how things are, rather than how they were, as well as the behaviour of businesses and jobseekers.

“Developing measures like this in the open also helps to increase our understanding of what drives innovation and which activities create real impact. I’m looking forward to seeing Tom’s work being discussed, adapted and built on.”

Dr Jeremy Silver, CEO at the Digital Catapult added: “This research confirms and subverts wide-held views on the UK tech industry.

“We’re seeing high potential clusters of innovation across the UK, linked to opportunities identified within the tech sector or aligned to universities or dominant regional industries. Our own Digital Catapult regional centres reflect this too.”

The data also found that larger cities such as London, Manchester, and Glasgow have strong innovation ecosystems across all measured sectors while smaller cities often have a few areas of particular strength, such as Reading, third for internet of things and Aberdeen,second for manufacturing.