A science park or science and technology park is an area with a collection of buildings

dedicated to scientific research on a business footing. There are many approximate synonyms for
"science park", including research park, technology park, technopolis and biomedical park.
The appropriate term typically depends on the type of science and research in which the park's
entities engage, but many of these developments are named according to which term gives the
park the best profitability and naming advantages. Often, science parks are associated with or
operated by institutions of higher education (colleges and universities).

These parks differ from typical high-technology business districts in that science parks and the
like are more organized, planned, and managed. They differ from science centres in being
concerned with future developments in science and technology. Typically businesses and
organizations in the parks focus on product advancement and innovation as opposed to industrial
parks that focus on manufacturing and business parks that focus on administration.

Besides building area, these parks offer a number of shared resources, such as uninterruptible
power supply, telecommunications hubs, reception and security, management offices,
restaurants, bank offices, convention center, parking, internal transportation, entertainment and
sports facilities, etc. In this way, the park offers considerable advantages to hosted companies, by
reducing overhead costs with these facilities.

Science and technology parks are encouraged by local governments, in order to attract new
companies to towns, and to expand their tax base and employment opportunities to citizens. Land
and other taxes are usually waived off or reduced along a number of years, in order to attract new
companies for the science and technological parks.

Contents
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 1 History
 2 Purpose
o 2.1 Sharing of ideas
o 2.2 Launching new companies
 3 Examples
 4 Management
 5 See also
 6 References
 7 External links

[edit] History
The world's first science park started in the early 1950s and foreshadowed the community known
today as Silicon Valley.[citation needed]
While parks vary widely in size and shape, from urban high-rises to suburban or rural locations,
a typical American science park is located in a suburban community with a population of less
than 500,000 and is operated by a university or a university-affiliated non-profit organization.
The companies in a typical science park are primarily private sector, but the science park is also
home to university and government facilities.

[edit] Purpose
[edit] Sharing of ideas

In Europe, Pierre Laffitte, the mastermind and founder of Sophia Antipolis Science Park in
France, described the concept of cross fertilization as the interchange between different cultures
or different ways of thinking that is mutually productive and beneficial; "the cross-fertilization of
science and the creative arts" not only in terms of economic, but also on a social and cultural
level. He applied this concept for the creation of Sophia Antipolis science park. In 1960, the
French newspaper Le Monde published an article written by Senator Pierre Laffitte titled "Le
Quartier Latin aux Champs," partly inspired by observations made while visiting the United
States, Sweden, the U.K., and France, his theory was that creativity is born through the exchange
between industrial, scientific, philosophical, and artistic minds.He decided to apply the concept
in France, thus the Sophia Antipolis Science Park.

Science parks are sources of entrepreneurship, talent, and economic competitiveness, and are key
elements of the infrastructure supporting the growth of today's global knowledge economy. By
providing a location in which government, universities and private companies cooperate and
collaborate, science parks create environments that foster collaboration and innovation. They
enhance the development, transfer, and commercialization of technology.

A new model, which is strategically planned mixed-use campus expansions, is emerging and
involves shared space in which industry and academic researchers can work side by side. These
university-affiliated mixed-use campus developments are not simply real-estate ventures. They
embody a commitment by universities to partake in broader activities, offering companies high-
value sites for accessing researchers, specialized facilities, and students, and promoting live-
work-play environments. Key features of these mixed-use developments include space for
significant future research growth; multi-tenant facilities to house researchers and companies;
and housing, along with other amenities which are attractive to young faculty, post-doctoral and
graduate students.

Science parks are also being developed to leverage the assets of non-university research and
development organizations such as federal laboratories. In addition to universities, major medical
research centers and other research organizations can be key drivers of technology-based
economic development. It is becoming increasingly common for communities in which a federal
laboratory is located to create a science park to leverage laboratory resources to realize economic
development.

Federal laboratories attract companies that wish to leverage the expertise of the laboratory
researchers and to gain access to highly specialized, and often unique, facilities and equipment.
Science parks can also provide a location for start-up companies created to commercialize
technology developed in the labs.

[edit] Launching new companies

Science parks provide the launch pad that startup companies need when they are "spun out" from
a university or company. Park-provided training in such areas as intellectual property law and
business planning help the fledgling businesses to succeed. Universities, in turn, benefit by
exposure to the business world, and the connection to the cutting-edge research being conducted
outside their walls in industry. What all science parks have in common is that they are, at heart,
knowledge partnerships that foster innovation.

The typical park provides a range of business startup assistance to its client companies, which are
often small startups based on innovative new ideas from university or private sector researchers.
The park has an operating budget of less than $1 million a year. Because it is designed as a non-
profit entity, the park itself does not generate significant net revenue. 750 people work at jobs
there, primarily at information technology companies, pharmaceutical firms, or scientific and
engineering service providers. These sorts of companies provide 45 percent of all science park
jobs.

Today more than 300,000 workers in North America work in university research parks.
According to the AURP-Battelle Technology Practice report, released in October 2007, every job
in a research park generates an average of an additional 2.57 jobs in the economy.[1] Science
parks are succeeding in incubating and growing companies. According to the Battelle report,
nearly 800 firms graduated from park incubators in the past five years, while only thirteen
percent failed. About one-quarter of these graduates remain in their park. Fewer than ten percent
of the graduates left the region.

[edit] Examples
Science parks are found all over the world, but are mostly concentrated in developed countries;
over 140 are found in North America alone. Prominent examples include the Hsinchu Science
Park in Taiwan, NanKang Software Park, Cambridge Science Park and NETpark in County
Durham, England, Pardis Technology Park, Hamedan Science & Technology Park in Iran and
Daedeok Innopolis in South Korea.

Centennial Campus at North Carolina State University is a case in point. In the 1980s, pressure
for space at the main North Carolina State University (NCSU) campus in Raleigh led to
exploration of nearby options, including substantial holdings by the state mental-health system
and the Diocese of Raleigh on 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) surrounding the old Lake Raleigh Reservoir.
Starting in the 1980s, the land was conveyed to NCSU in stages, and serious planning began with
the appointment of a former dean of the university's School of Design to the position of campus
coordinator.

Sandia Science and Technology Park, the NASA Research Park at Ames, and the Tri-Cities
Science and Technology Park located close to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are
examples of research parks that have been developed by or adjacent to federal laboratories.
Another example is the East Tennessee Technology Park at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Other examples of U.S. science parks are the Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, Alabama,
and the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana. Begun in 1962, Cummings today is
home to 285 companies which employ over 25,000 employees, and Purdue, founded in the late
1990s, is today home to over 140 companies on the main campus alone.[2]

Brazil is one of the developing countries which has strongly encouraged the establishment of
technology parks and business incubators, mostly for budding small high tech companies.
Several dozens of such parks are now in existence. In the state of São Paulo, the state
government has sponsored a technology park program for several cities which have a strong high
tech base, such as São Paulo City, Campinas, São José dos Campos and São Carlos. These cities
have strong research universities, such as the University of São Paulo, State University of
Campinas, Federal University of São Carlos, pure and applied research institutes and high
technology companies, such as Embraer, one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world.
Campinas also boasts the largest number of high-tech business incubators and industrial parks (a
total of eight), such as the CIATEC I and II, Softex, TechnoPark, InCamp, Polis, TechTown,
Industrial Park of Campinas and others. Because of this Campinas has been dubbed the Brazilian
Silicon Valley.

[edit] Management
The Cabral Dahab Science Park Management Paradigm, first presented by Regis Cabral as
ten points in 1990, has been influential in the management of science parks around the world and
lays down the following conditions for a property development to be considered a science park.
According to the management paradigm, a science park must:

1. Have access to qualified research and development personnel in the areas of knowledge
in which the park has its identity.
2. Be able to market its high valued products and services.
3. Have the capability to provide marketing expertise and managerial skills to firms,
particularly Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, lacking such a resource.
4. Be inserted in a society that allows for the protection of product or process secrets, via
patents, security or any other means.
5. Be able to select or reject which firms enter the park. The firm's business plan is expected
to be coherent with the science park identity.
6. Have a clear identity, quite often expressed symbolically, as the park's name choice, its
logo or the management discourse.
7. Have a management with established or recognised expertise in financial matters, and
which has presented long term economic development plans.
8. Have the backing of powerful, dynamic and stable economic actors, such as a funding
agency, political institution or local university.
9. Include in its management an active person of vision, with power of decision and with
high and visible profile, who is perceived by relevant actors in society as embodying the
interface between academia and industry, long-term plans and good management.
 10. Include a prominent percentage of consultancy firms, as well as technical service firms,
including laboratories and quality control firms.

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP), a non-profit association made up of

university-affiliated research parks, defines university research and science parks as a property-
based venture, which has certain characteristics, of which include:

1. Master planned property and buildings designed primarily for private/public research and
development facilities, high technology and science based companies, and support
services.
2. A contractual, formal or operational relationship with one or more science/research
institutions of higher education.
3. A role in promoting the university's research and development through industry
partnerships, assisting in the growth of new ventures and promoting economic
development
4. A role in aiding the transfer of technology and business skills between university and
industry teams A role in promoting technology-led economic development for the
community or region.

According to the AURP, the park may be a not-for-profit or for-profit entity owned wholly or
partially by a university or a university related entity. Alternatively, the park may be owned by a
non-university entity but have a contractual or other formal relationship with a university,
including joint or cooperative ventures between a privately developed research park and a
university.[3][4]

The International Association of Science Parks explains that the purpose of these parks is to
promote the economic development and competitiveness of cities and regions by creating new
business, adding value to companies, and creating new knowledge-based jobs.[5]

SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY PARKS (STPs)

PSEB has established Software Technology Parks (STPs) in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore to facilitate the IT and
IT-enabled Services (ITeS) companies operating in Pakistan. Designed with a view to getting business ventures up
and running in the shortest possible time, these STPs provide office space with all the modern conveniences in prime
business locations in these major cities. These dedicated premises provide a comfortable working environment, high-
speed international data connectivity, and an uninterrupted power supply, with minimal regulatory overheads and
paperwork, to its registered companies. The STPs in all these cities have facilities for conferences/seminars,
business centers, adequate security arrangements, and ample parking space.