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Silicon Fen (sometimes known as the Cambridge Cluster) is the name given to the region around Cambridge, England, which is home to a large cluster of high-tech businesses focusing on software, electronics and biotechnology. Many of these businesses have connections with Cambridge University, and the area is now one of the most important technology centres in Europe.
It is called "Silicon Fen" by analogy with Silicon Valley in California, because it lies at the southern tip of the English Fenland. The interest in technology in the area started with Acorn Computers.
More than 1000 high-technology companies established offices in the area, during the five years preceding 1998. Some early successful businesses were Advanced RISC Machines and Cambridge Display Technology. In 2004, 24% of all UK venture capital (8% of all the EU's) was received by Silicon Fen companies, according to the Cambridge Cluster Report 2004 produced by Library House and Grant Thornton.
The so-called Cambridge phenomenon, giving rise to start-up companies in a town previously only having a little light industry in the electrical sector, is usually dated to the founding of the Cambridge Science Park in 1970: this was an initiative of Trinity College, Cambridge University and moved away from a traditional low-development policy for Cambridge.
The characteristic of Cambridge is small companies (as few as three people, in some cases) in sectors such as computer-aided design. Over time the number of companies has grown; it has not proved easy to count them, but recent estimates have placed the number anywhere between 1,000 and 3,500 companies. They are spread over an area defined perhaps by the CB postcode or 01223 telephone area code, or more generously in an area bounded by Ely, Newmarket, Saffron Walden, Royston and Huntingdon.
In 2000, then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown set up a research partnership between MIT and Cambridge University, the Cambridge–MIT Institute, in order to increase international collaboration between the two universities and to strengthen the economic success of Silicon Fen.
In February 2006, the Judge Business School, Cambridge University reported estimates that suggested that at that time, there were around 250 active start-ups directly linked to the University, valued at around US$6 billion. Only a tiny proportion of these companies have so far grown into multinationals: ARM, Autonomy Corporation and AVEVA are the most obvious examples, and more recently CSR has seen rapid growth due to the uptake of Bluetooth.
It was found in 2012 that strong employment growth was hampered due to the concentration on research and development. This was because of limited competition in manufacturing capability and its consequent cost.
The region has one of the most flexible job markets in the technology sector, and people are often employed by other companies after a start-up fails. Although everyone wants their company to succeed, failures are tolerated, indeed almost expected.
One reason for the area's success is that after some time such an employment market is self-sustaining, since employees are willing to move to an area that promises a future beyond any one company. Another factor is the high degree of 'networking', enabling people across the region to find partners, jobs, funding, and know-how. Organisations have sprung up to facilitate this process, for example the Cambridge Network.
Another factor is the academic pre-eminence of Cambridge University, which is one of the top 5 universities in the world, a high standard of living available in the county, and good transport links, for example to London and with Cambridge Airport now handling scheduled and charter airline flights from Europe as well as a full service business jet centre. Many graduates from the university choose to stay on in the area, giving local companies a rich pool of talent to draw upon. The high-technology industry has little by way of competition, unlike say in Oxfordshire where many other competing industries exist. Because Cambridgeshire was not until recently a high-technology centre, commercial rents were generally lower than in other parts of the UK, giving companies a head-start on those situated in other more expensive regions; this has, however, recently changed and Cambridgeshire now has one of the highest costs of living in the UK outside London.
- Acorn Computers Ltd
- Andy Hopper
- ARM Holdings
- Cambridge Consultants
- Cambridge Network
- Camcon Technology
- CSR plc
- Global Silicon Limited
- Hermann Hauser
- Oxford-Cambridge Arc
- Sinclair Research Ltd
- Silicon Glen
- Silicon Gorge
- Silicon Valley
- Silicon Docks
- Team Consulting
- List of places with 'Silicon' names
- List of city nicknames in the United Kingdom
- The Cambridge Cluster Report 2007, Library House 2007, Download
- The Cambridge Phenomenon: The Growth of High Technology Industry in a University Town, Segal Quince & Partners 1985, ISBN 0-9510202-0-X
- Worthington, Tom (1999). "The Cambridge Phenomenon: Summary of The Report". Net traveller: exploring the networked nation. Australian Computer Society. ISBN 0 909925 74 7.
- The Cambridge Phenomenon Revisited - a synopsis of the new report by Segal Quince Wicksteed, Segal Quince & Partners 2000, Download
- The Cambridge Cluster Report 2003, Library House 2003, Download
- The Cambridge Cluster Report 2004, Library House in association with Grant Thornton 2004, Download
- The Cambridge Cluster Report 2006, Library House 2006, Download
- The Cambridge Technopole Report 2006 An overview of the UK's leading high tech cluster, St John's Innovation Centre 2006, 
- The Impact of the University of Cambridge on the UK Economy and Society A high-level study commissioned by EEDA and the Cambridge Network in 2006, 
- Jones, Kevin (1 December 1998). "US Report: Old Cambridge targets high-tech success". ZDNet. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
The focus on technology in the so-called Silicon Fen started two decades ago with Acorn Computer PLC, which became the U.K.'s leading personal computer maker until the advent of Windows. The Fen also spawned a couple of successes, such as Advanced RISC Machines Ltd., a virtual chip designer; Cambridge Display Technologies Ltd., a monitor maker [...]
- Ibrahim, Youseff M. (4 January 1998). "In Old England a Silicon Fen: Cambridge as a High-Tech Outpost". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- Andersen, Christian; Bailey, Jonathan; Heal, Adam; Munn, Oliver; O'Connell, Bryan (4 May 2012). "IT Hardware cluster: Cambridge, United Kingdom" (PDF). Final Paper; Microeconomics of Competitiveness, Harvard Business School. Harvard Business School. Retrieved 18 June 2012.