ClusterOS Regional Diagnostic
North East Combined Authority
7 clusters diagnosed across North East Combined Authority, drawing on 664 evidence items cross-referenced at entity level. The Coordination-Intermediary-Activity configuration fires confidently in 7 of 7 clusters.
- 6 of 7 clusters register all three reinforcing backbone configurations at confident levels.
- Anchor concentration — Northumbria University appears across 3 of 7 sub-clusters as a configured ecosystem-level anchor.
- Pathway scale — 5,006 follow-on funding events tracked against 69 declared spin-offs.
| Cluster | Regime | Dominant stalls | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| North East Energy | Permission-Validation | Stabilising Around Incumbents, Coordinating Instead of Deciding, Mediating Instead of Coupling | 78 |
| North East Manufacturing | Permission-Validation | Coordinating Instead of Deciding, Extracting Without Reinvesting, Mediating Instead of Coupling | 87 |
| North East Digital | Permission-Validation | Coordinating Instead of Deciding, Stabilising Around Incumbents, Waiting for Permission | 96 |
| North East LifeSciences | Permission-Validation | Coordinating Instead of Deciding, Mediating Instead of Coupling, Stabilising Around Incumbents | 91 |
| North East Creative | Governance Capture | Re-proving Instead of Narrowing, Coordinating Instead of Deciding, Stabilising Around Incumbents | 65 |
| North East Space | Coordination-Incumbent-Permission | Coordinating Instead of Deciding, Stabilising Around Incumbents | 62 |
| North East Innovation Ecosystem | Permission-Validation | Stabilising Around Incumbents, Coordinating Instead of Deciding, Extracting Without Reinvesting | 185 |
No aggregate stall data yet.
Coordination generates reports; reports justify programme activity; programme activity generates coordination requirements; all three signals absorbed simultaneously making the system self-referential.
"A probe could test whether one university research centre (e.g. NICD, IAME) launching a commercial pilot without prior UKRI validation or LEP coordination approval might expose whether the permission-validation loop is structurally necessary or locally adaptive."
"If one coordination decision (e.g., North East Space Skills Advisory Group convening a university-firm skills partnership) were made without routing through Newcastle University (77% HHI incumbent), it might expose whether coordination infrastructure can operate through alternative nodes (Northumbria SPEARS, Durham CAI, Teesside centres)."
"If one external funder required North East Creative to report programme outcomes as behavioural evidence (e.g., business actions taken, partnerships formed without intermediation) rather than coordination activity (events held, stakeholders convened), it might expose the gap between coordination volume and direct impact, potentially reducing the system's ability to absorb pressure through coordination-report cycles."