The paper reports the results of a systematic literature review that explored the evidence on networking and innovation. The review concentrated on articles published between 1980 and 2003 and from 628 it selected 179 that were rated highly. This paper explains the evidence as it relates to the United Kingdom and the implications for a country's innovation infrastructure more generally are highlighted. The study finds that firm's in the UK have a strong history of networking, that they are not as competent as competitors at leveraging value from networks and that the UK's network infrastructure requires further development