Business incubators and accelerators help new and startup companies through the early stages of growth. This report looks at the landscape of incubators and accelerators in the UK, focusing on:

• the numbers, types, and locations
• how they are funded
• the number of businesses they support

This study examines the state of accelerators, incubators and related startup support organisations in the UK. It is intended to help entrepreneurs, programme managers and policymakers understand recent changes in the landscape in order to make more informed decisions.

This guide leads the reader through the process of observing, analysing and visualising the entrepreneurial ecosystem – meaning the entrepreneurs’ environment including the surrounding institutions, actors and prevailing culture – a process referred to as ‘mapping’. Such mapping enables the exploration of gaps and constraints and facilitates decisions on measures that are most relevant to improve the entrepreneurial environment in a given context. It offers a practical and pragmatic approach that can produce results in a short period of time – ideally within three to four weeks.

Launched in December 2018, the EU project ‘Fostering collaboration through mapping, analysing, and interlinking of European Entrepreneurial Regions’ has the objective of strengthening the impact of existing actions aimed at further developing start-ups and scale-ups in the context of the European Entrepreneurial Regions initiative. The EER Label is granted to regions with an outstanding and innovative entrepreneurial policy strategy, irrespective of their size, wealth, or competences.