Science and Technology Parks and Universities – Facing the Next Industrial Revolution

Abstract

Entrepreneurship gives science its modern economic value. To drive this model many universities and research institutes have created Science and Technology Parks (STPs) that are managed ‘place based’ developments that help to share the risk of starting a business by offering a range of facilities and services to micro and small companies that are trying to commercialize science in its widest sense. These are specialist locations and to make them effective in achieving their most commonly held objective of creating clusters of innovation they need to build capacity in business incubation and its derivatives in business acceleration, understand the motives and challenges that face the entrepreneurs that they attract and take a wide role in building networks that include a regional role that supports economic development in collaboration with their host organization. This involves building a management and governance structure that is relevant to the prevailing business conditions and then ensuring their offering to entrepreneurs helps add value at a commercial level. This chapter reviews these aspects of STP planning, development and operation in the context of university hosts.