Third Generation Science Parks –

a Vision for the Future

A Scenarios Workshop in 2006,

by Professor John Allen - and 29 others

A scenarios workshop

• Participants from science parks, research, regional development, venture capital, big business, universities;

• To determine what characteristics and objectives a future, successful and mature science park should have;

• Outputs were in the form of a ‘scenario for success’, considered from a future standpoint;

• My objective: move on by looking forward and not back!

Stages of science park development

• General process of science park maturation:

– Start-up – establishment and first year or so of operation;

– Development –adding buildings, gaining experience;

– Maturation – recognition of wider, more desirable role in community.

• Can be a profound change:– Move to multi-site operation;– More direct role in helping SME to grow;– Closer link with university;– Or other features

• This is the ‘3rd Generation Science Park’.

Welcome to the future 1• National and regional context:

– 3G science parks not ‘stand alone’ ventures, but intimately involved in national and regional innovation policies:

• Successful science parks have positioned themselves as leaders in the development of the knowledge economy;

• Great cities of the world have been influenced by

the new generation of science parks..

Welcome to the future 2

• Strategy:– Management and boards of the highest quality;

– Clear long-term strategy;

– Sustainable business model.

– 3G science parks are gateways, not destinations.

• Pre-occupation with location, property and place has been replaced with a focus on process.

Welcome to the future 3• Management:

• Top-quality CEOs, with leadership qualities, broad set of skills and capable of relating positively to disparate sectors which regularly interact with the park.

• Underlying fundamental objective in managing a mature science park is to optimise serendipity

Welcome to the future 4

• Finance:– Proportion of private investment has greatly

increased;

– Good commercial return, and use a proportion

of the surplus to support services to tenants;

– Public sector support still important for

operations in difficult regions.

Welcome to the future 5

• Environment:

• 3G parks:

– regard the built environment as vital: not an

end in itself, but as aid to the process of

creativity, interaction and innovation;

– have sense of responsibility, and show

concern for the global environment.

Welcome to the future 6

• University relationship:

• Principal defining characteristic of 3G SP:

– Active, effective, diverse, two-way:

– University sees park as part of its own institution;

– Park as shaper of the curriculum and faculty culture;

– Park impacts back on university’s core business.

• On curriculum; recruitment; graduate destinations; and the research agenda.

Welcome to the future 7

• Networking:

• Networking at all levels essential to the 3G SP;

– Need for networks at park level, local, regional, national and global;

– Helps with benchmarking, comparing best practices and supporting commercialisation of high added-value products;

• The best parks report a ‘network value’ in their reports and accounts, and leave those that don’t work.

Welcome to the future 8• Growing the companies.

• The park management:

– Understands their tenants and their objectives;

– Adds value by interpreting the opportunities and consequences of each tenant’s business;

– Strives to establish a climate of trust with its tenants;

– Offers a range of advice and support to assist growth;

– Makes the transition from incubation a seamless one.

There is no single ‘right answer’!

Professor John Allen

allen@pythia.u-net.com