Connecting knowledge and businesses: the key role in science parks

15/05/2024

In a world constantly changing, innovation is not only an aspiration but a business demand. While we sail through the unknown currents of the technological advances and challenges of a global society, the ability to innovate emerges as a motor that boosts social and economic progress towards a more promising future. Today, more than ever, we are in a moment full of uncertainty but full of potential as well. Is it in this moment where innovation constitutes one of the essential factors for the creation of dynamic businesses and occupations, the improvement of competitiveness and life quality, and the building of a more equal and sustainable society.

In line with these goals, science parks have emerged as true innovation ecosystems, fostering an interconnected, dynamic atmosphere that favours synergy amongst research, business, and society. These singular spaces are an example of the collaboration between many actors: administration, universities, research institutes, startups, SMEs, and R&D units inside big companies.

Thanks to the parks, universities, and research centres, they have opened their doors to their territory and connected to their business and social environments to give an answer to the challenges we face as a society. In this way, research potential and talent directly impact businesses, either via collaboration agreements between research groups and businesses, the incorporation and maintenance of talent, or the creation of entrepreneurial projects.

A great example is the UAB Research Park, which acts as a bridge between the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the businesses and entities of the territory, capitalising on the transversality and multidisciplinarity that characterise the research at the UAB Sphere. This commitment is reflected in a broad range of services designed to satisfy the needs of research personnel, entrepreneurs, and businesses, with the main goal of disseminating the results of the research to society and simulating innovation in SMEs, using knowledge as a motor.

Those services range from easing the interrelationships and connections amongst different agents to providing access to structured and accessible information and support in the search for funding for R&D projects, specialised formation, participative processes, and entrepreneurial programmes, amongst others.

This environment full of innovation gets even richer with different resources, such as the Valuation and Patents Office, the Communities Oriented to Strategic Challenges, the TECNIO Groups, the UAB Open Labs, the Service Provision Laboratories, Emprèn UAB, and the Open Lab Campus.

Even so, this capacity for transference is reinforced by an extended network of actors, including scientific-technical teams such as ALBA Synchrotron, other universities like UPC and Esade, and research centres like CSIC and IRTA. This ecosystem of innovation is completed with the collaboration of local administrations and representatives of businesses like Sant Cugat Empresarial, Cerdanyola Empresarial, and Cecot. This potential for knowledge transfer not only attracts businesses but also significantly enriches the ability to contribute to the socioeconomic development of Catalonia based on the knowledge economy.

Thus, science and technology parks assume a crucial role as a bridge between universities, businesses, and other agents in the territory. Now, the challenge is, in the first instance, to improve the social and economic impact of the transfer knowledge activities being developed, to generate big projects within their region, and, in the second instance, to look to internationalise their projects. As such, parks must participate in the creation of European networks with which to transfer knowledge and mobility from companies to people.

We must work with all the actors within society to offer solutions to the upcoming challenges and open new paths for science and technology. It is a must that new generations have a great entrepreneurial spirit to advance as a society, and, in this direction, science parks have a protagonist role.

Beginning innovative projects can be complicated, but these days, it is a necessity. Because of this, society must continue to bet firmly on this kind of business ecosystem, where you get the training, accompaniment, and the right environment to achieve them successfully.