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In September 2021 techUK published our Local Digital Capital Index with Henham Strategy and launched the Index at Advanced’s offices in Birmingham with West Midlands Mayor Andy Street.

The Index provides a new tool to examine the strength of the different components that make up local tech ecosystems across the UK.

Local Digital Capital is calculated across eight different components (with six measured in 2021), these are:

• Digital Infrastructure
• Digital Skills
• Digital Adoption
• Research & Innovation
• Finance & Investment
• Trade Support
• Data Ecosystems
• Collaboration and Coordination

In 2022 we will be publishing the next iteration of the Local Digital Capital Index. This year’s version will go even further in examining the strength of the tech landscape in the UK but also provide more examples of the work taking place to develop new and innovative tech ecosystems.

To help develop the Index further, to ensure it’s robust and to make sure we are engaging with different voices in the tech sector, techUK is conducting a call for evidence on two fronts:

(1) Data

Are there data sources or information that you feel techUK and Henham Strategy should be including in our Index and adding to the data used in 2021? Furthermore what metrics should be considered when looking to measure and track data ecosystems across the UK?

(2) Case Studies

We want to capture work and initiatives having an impact across the UK. What work is taking place in the UK’s Nations and Regions to help develop local tech ecosystems? How is it having an impact? And how does relate to the components? And how will this grow or develop further?

techUK is keen to ensure that we keep the Index as a tool that uses publicly available, open and transparent data that can be measured across the whole of the UK. In seeking further evidence from our members, government (local and national) as well as other partners and agencies we know that the Index will remain a document helpful to and used by the sector but also other interested parties.

This call for evidence will be open from 19 April 2022 until 30 May 2022 and information will go toward the publication of the LDC Index in September 2022. To submit information or find out more, please click on this link and get in touch with techUK.