Welcome to the Thames Freeport Global Innovation Labs
A dynamic new hub unlocking global collaboration, transforming connectivity, construction materials, healthcare — and beyond.
About Thames Freeport Innovation Labs
Innovation has always been at the core of Thames Freeport. The Global Innovation Labs bring together world-leading businesses, startups, researchers, and public bodies to test and scale solutions that tackle real-world challenges. Building on the success of our pioneering Smart City Lab, the Labs now provide a platform for global collaboration across industries delivering jobs, investment, and sustainable growth for the UK.
How the Innovation Labs deliver impact
The Innovation Labs are designed to turn real challenges into practical outcomes. They start with live needs across transport, energy, health, homes and investment within the Thames Freeport area.
Targeted interventions are then delivered through the Construction Lab, Connectivity Lab and Health Lab, using real assets, infrastructure and operating environments. This allows solutions to be tested, proven and deployed in practice, not in isolation.
The focus is on clear outcomes, including improved productivity, market creation and faster adoption of solutions. Successful interventions generate impact at scale, attracting new inward investment, strengthening supply chains and supporting job creation across the region.
Our Innovation Ecosystem
The Connectivity Lab builds on Thames Freeport’s landmark partnership with Verizon and Nokia, which is delivering one of the UK’s first multi-site private 5G networks. This cutting-edge infrastructure creates a live environment where innovators can develop and test solutions with global relevance.
From AI-driven logistics and smart infrastructure to edge computing and autonomous operations, the Lab provides a unique platform for companies seeking to prove and scale their technologies. By combining global expertise with Thames Freeport’s strategic location, the Connectivity Lab positions the region as an international testbed for digital innovation – one with the power to transform trade, supply chains, and urban living.
With major housing and infrastructure projects already underway across the region including the UK Construction Hub at Tilbury. The Thames Freeport is investing in programmes and partnerships designed to address market failures that have held back building new homes and retrofitting existing homes in the region, creating new markets for suppliers and delivering benefits to current and future residents.
The Construction Innovation Lab provides a space to test and scale new approaches that respond to this demand while reducing environmental impact. By bringing together innovators in materials, modular systems, and circular construction, the Lab supports the development of low-carbon, affordable housing and more efficient building practices. It is both a proving ground for technologies with global application and a practical response to the region’s immediate need for sustainable growth.
With large and diverse local communities, the Freeport region faces many of the same challenges as urban areas worldwide: rising demand for technology and solutions for health and social care, ageing populations, and pressure on public services. We are working with healthcare partners across the region to accelerate the scaling and roll-out of these technologies through removing barriers to investment and adoption. The Healthcare Innovation Lab offers a real-world testbed for solutions that are reducing strain on health systems whilst improving outcomes for communities.
Working with startups, health providers, and local authorities, the Lab explores AI and digital health, assisted living, and preventative care technologies. By trialling innovations directly in the communities of Havering, Barking & Dagenham, and Thurrock, the Lab generates insights that can be scaled nationally and internationally – creating healthier lives and more resilient care systems.
