On Thursday, I spent that day at the 25th annual conference of the United Kingdom Science Park Association (UKSPA), an event which focused largely on the contribution of science parks to the innovation system.With more than 300 delegates, the conference was exceptionally well organised and I was pleased to listen to some old friends giving, as usual, some stimulating and controversial viewpoints on how to develop a knowledge- based economy.
For example, Professor Tom Cannon of Liverpool University talked about the globalisation of talent and how it had the ability to change economies; Professor Henry Etzkowitz discussed the so-called triple helix of government, academia and industry and how, by working together, they could create a new future for regions across the world; and finally Sten Gunnar Johansson talked about the success of his Mjardevi Science Park at Linkoping University, an institution I have been working with closely for more than 15 years.
So what is a science park?
It can essentially be described as an industrial development consisting of a cluster of knowledge- based businesses where support and advice are supplied to assist in the growth of the companies. In most instances, science parks are associated with a centre of technology such as a university or research institute.
Unlike normal property developments, a typical science park will offer technology and business services, either in-house or through a regional network of experts. Some of the more developed science parks also include advanced services such technology transfer, advice on intellectual property, access to loan and venture capital and specialist marketing advice.
What was most striking was the data regarding the actual economic impact of science parks on the UK economy. With more than two million square metres of property, 70 science parks are now responsible for 3,286 companies which employ 73,497 people.
In 1985, when UKSPA started, there were only 18 members with 119,000 square metres of property on which 607 companies with 3,317 employees were based. This demonstrates how the science park movement has, since its inception, made a real difference to local economies around the UK.
As well as being magnets for large inward investors within knowledge-based sectors they have also acted as a major catalyst for local high technology businesses – more than 70% of the companies on UK science parks were previously located within 30 miles with two thirds of the tenant businesses being independent companies.
Such data is dazzling but, in the Welsh context, the biggest disappointment is that we don’t actually have any proper science parks within Wales.
Yes, the Technium Network and the Cardiff Business Technology are members of UKSPA but they are essentially incubators for businesses rather than what we would normally define as science parks. This is in stark contrast to other regions of the UK which have made serious investments into this area during the past two decades.
Of course, the same old excuses keep getting repeated by policymakers.
For example, many will say that a small region such as Wales could never aspire to having such a large science park, yet the town of Linkoping in Sweden, with only 150,000 inhabitants, is the base for the Mjardevi Science Park which has 250 firms employing more than 6,000 people, with the majority of those generated from the local university.
There are also those who say that government simply “doesn’t do” such developments, and yet the Welsh Assembly had very few qualms about spending hundreds of millions of pounds on the Technium incubator network without bothering to attract a penny of private sector investment from property developers.
I am convinced that, as we come out of the recession, there will be an appetite in Wales for at least two science parks from private sector developers if they are properly supported by government at both a local and national level.
The first would be in North Wales, probably equidistant from Bangor and Glyndwr Universities and thus being an attractive option to any spillovers from Manchester and Liverpool.
The second, as I have said before in this column, should be based in Bridgend where there are already major employers such as Sony and Ford.
It would therefore be in the centre of a research triangle of Cardiff and UWIC, Swansea and Glamorgan.
With excellent communications links by road, air and rail and the benefit of being based in the grant-friendly Convergence Fund areas of Wales, both science parks would quickly become competitive to emerge as major magnets for both large knowledge-based companies looking for a base in Europe and for new technology-based firms spinning out of both the techniums and the universities.
All that is needed now for Wales to break its duck on such a development is for the Assembly Government, working alongside the necessary local authorities, to begin the planning process and to ensure that there is an attractive package available for investors to consider building this critical resource for the knowledge-based economy of the future.
Comments