而今它持续欣欣向荣。去年，剑桥市区域的知识密集型企业的总营业额增长了17%，这是新冠疫情之后的惊人反弹。

And it continues to prosper. Last year, 'knowledge-intensive' businesses in the Cambridge city region saw a 17% increase in their collective turnover, in a spectacular post-COVID rebound.

我们之所以知道这些数据以及更多的信息，得益于两位剑桥研究员孜孜不倦的研究工作，他们详细展现了当地的经济情况。

We know this - and lots more besides - thanks to the work of two indefatigable Cambridge researchers who map in minute detail what's going on in the local economy.

但创业精神的蓬勃发展也带来了一些挑战。

But that flowering of entrepreneurial spirit brought with it certain challenges.

Matthew Bullock是Cambridge Ahead的联合创始人，Cambridge Ahead是一个会员制组织（剑桥大学所属），成立于2013年，旨在倡导该地区的可持续经济增长。

Matthew Bullock is co-founder of Cambridge Ahead, a membership organisation (to which the University belongs) which was set up in 2013 to advocate for sustainable economic growth in the region.

他说：“一开始，我们意识到要保持集群的发展势头，就需要了解自己的优势并以此为基础。我们还意识到，地方政府需要规划住房和交通线路来支持日益活跃的生态系统。”

"Early on," he explains, "we realised that to maintain the cluster's momentum, we would need to understand its strengths and build on them. We were also conscious that local government would need to plan for the houses and transport links to support this increasingly buoyant ecosystem."

“我们需要准确的数字，这样可以从中概览整个区域经济。”

"What was required were accurate numbers, from which we could create an overview of the whole regional economy."

绘制集群地图的早期尝试是为了展示任务的规模和复杂性。“第一个数据集存在明显的问题，一些公司被重复计算在内，” Bullock解释道。“去除重复的公司结构并不容易，对此我们有充分认识。”

An early attempt to map the Cluster served to demonstrate the scale and complexity of the task. "There were obvious problems with that first data set, with companies being counted more than once," explains Bullock. "De-duplicating corporate structures is not easy. You have to know what you are doing."

Andy Cosh博士是商业研究中心助理主任，他凭借应用经济学的研究背景，以及在英国财政部和众多企业的工作经验，完全了解需要哪些信息。

Enter Dr Andy Cosh, Assistant Director at the Centre for Business Research. With a research background in applied economics, and experience of working both at HM Treasury and with many different companies, he understood exactly what was required.

他说：“在2015年，我开始完全靠自己的力量来收集数据，开发了一种方法，后来变成了一本内容广泛的操作手册。”

"In 2015, I started data gathering, entirely on my own," says Cosh, "developing a methodology which has since turned into an extensive operations manual."

2018 年，随着任务规模的不断扩大，数据专家Giorgio Caselli博士加入了他的行列。他们一起将区域重点从剑桥周围20英里半径范围扩大到覆盖整个剑桥郡和彼得伯勒。如今，他们的数据库包含 90,000 多家活跃和不活跃的公司和有限合伙企业的详细信息。

In 2018, as the size of the task continued to grow, he was joined by fellow data expert, Dr Giorgio Caselli. Together they have expanded their regional focus from a 20-mile radius around Cambridge to cover the whole Cambridgeshire and Peterborough combined authority. Today, their database contains details of more than 90,000 companies and limited partnerships, both active and inactive.

获得该地区经济地理的真实情况并非易事。要计算出每年有多少新公司成立，以及现有公司是否增长、萎缩、倒闭或搬走，需要花费数月的时间进行研究。

Gaining a true picture of the region's economic geography is a painstaking exercise. To work out how many new companies are founded each year and if existing ones have grown, shrunk, failed, or moved away, takes months of research.

他们不遗余力的方法甚至包括了开车探访该地区的科学和商业园区，以确定哪些公司有实体存在。

Their no-stone-unturned approach includes driving round the region's science and business parks to ascertain which companies have a physical presence there.

Cambridge Ahead的首席执行官Jane Paterson-Todd解释了为什么数据分析如此重要：“它使Cambridge Ahead 能够以可信的方式讲述整个剑桥经济正在发生的事情。

Cambridge Ahead's CEO, Jane Paterson-Todd, explains why their data analysis is so important: "It enables Cambridge Ahead to speak with credibility about what is happening across the Cambridge economy.”

“这对我们与国家和地方政策制定者的合作而言非常宝贵，它让人们关注我们行业基础中真实发生的事情，并使我们能够与政府讨论应对所需的投资和干预措施。”

"It is invaluable in our engagement with national and local policymakers, shining a spotlight on what is really happening in our industry base and enabling us to talk to government about the investments and interventions that are needed in response."

Cosh说：“刚开始时，我们得到了Arm、Marshall和Mills & Reeve等当地组织的赞助，他们从一开始就认识到数据的价值。

"When we first started," says Cosh, "we were sponsored by local organisations such as Arm, Marshall and Mills & Reeve, who recognised the value of the data from the outset.

“我们现在还得到了剑桥郡和彼得伯勒联合管理局以及大剑桥合作伙伴关系的资助，我们的工作支持他们为整个地区的可持续和公平经济增长制定的计划。”

"We are now also funded by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and the Greater Cambridge Partnership, and our work underpins their planning for sustainable - and equitable - economic growth across the region."

今天，这一年度数据的收集和分析为广泛的地方、区域和国家规划活动提供了基石，在支持整个集群的发展和相关基础设施规划方面发挥着关键作用。

Today, this annual data collection and analysis provides the cornerstone for a wide range of local, regional and national planning activities, playing a pivotal role in supporting the development of the Cluster as a whole and the associated infrastructure planning.

该方法还被用于调查生态系统特定部分的影响。例如，在2020年，Cosh和Caselli组成的团队量化了巴布拉汉姆研究园区的影响，凸显了其在英国生命科学领域的关键作用。

The methodology has also been used to investigate the impact of particular parts of the ecosystem. For example, in 2020, Cosh and Caselli were part of a team that quantified the impact of the Babraham Research Campus, highlighting its critical role in the UK's life sciences sector.

对于Cosh而言，在推动集群持续繁荣的同时，他们的工作还代表了如何更广泛地应用这种方法的模型：

For Cosh, as well as supporting the continued success of the Cluster, their work also represents a model for how this kind of approach could be applied more widely:

“如果政府想要制定有效的区域经济政策，它需要了解其在哪些领域具备优势，并通过政策来加强优势。这就需要我们提供的详细精确的数据，而目前在英国其他地区则没有这样的数据”

"If the government wants to develop effective regional economic policies, it needs to understand which sectors it is strong in and where, and use policy to enhance those strengths. But to do that properly they need this kind of detailed, accurate data which currently is not available for other parts of the UK."

So what do the numbers tell us about the Cambridge City Region today?

Andy和Giorgio介绍了他们的重要发现。

We asked Andy and Giorgio to give us their headline findings.

每年，Andy和Giorgio的数据都会帮助我们展示生态系统和大学对彼此的重要性。

Every year, Andy and Giorgio's data helps us show just how important the ecosystem is to the University and vice versa.

—— Figures are based on information available at the time of printing – April 2023