Talk:Science park/Archives/2014

Leftover info
This was left from the AURP paragraph at List of research parks. I think it may just be copied, so reword it if you're going to include it in the main article. --TinMan 05:24, 14 April 2007 (UTC)


 * "Imagine the power unleashed when the science being created inside a university and the know-how inside a high tech business meet up. Imagine a place where knowledge workers and entrepreneurs have access to critical resources such as shared instruments and laboratories, science libraries, educational programs and other entrepreneurs with whom to work. Add in access to venture capitalists. This is the rich mixture that forms the pay dirt known as a university research park. University research parks provide the path on which innovation moves from the lab into the marketplace. And as university research parks harness the power of education and research, the result is new jobs, new industries, and solutions to the age-old problems of mankind. With companies outsourcing jobs and manufacturing to various parts of the globe, the innovation and collaboration taking place in our university research parks provides the key to maintaining our economic competitiveness. The world’s first university research park started in the early 1950’s, and foreshadowed the community known today as Silicon Valley. Another pioneering university research park set out to stop the “brain drain” from a rural, agricultural region which was then dependent on the tobacco industry. Today Research Triangle Park and the area around Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina is home to many of the world’s most advanced high technology businesses. These businesses employ over 40,000 people. University research parks provide the landing pad that startup companies need when they are “spun out” from a university. 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 “spin in” of the cutting-edge research being conducted outside their walls in industry. Students benefit by learning and networking with companies in university research parks, while at the same time the companies benefit from access to interns and graduates. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, students took advantage of the support provided by the RPI incubator and research park to start MapInfo Corporation, the first major desktop GIS software company. From their start as a project team in a Technological Entrepreneurship class, the RPI students seized the opportunity to propel MapInfo into a $150 million business. Today MapInfo employs over 900 people worldwide. Venture capitalists are often intrigued by the investment opportunities that become available in parks, and they work to maintain close connections. These connections can result in startups finding their first “angel” investor. Frequently the investors are well-versed in management, which is skill that the new entrepreneurs need. This managerial guidance helps them navigate the complex world of technology transfer and venture funding, and can make the difference between success and failure. Supplying an environment of innovation where a company can move when the time comes to outgrow the garage can be of enormous benefit, not just to the company, but to the economic development of its community as well. The Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana, was there when a Purdue chemistry professor decided to make the move from his garage. 32 years ago, Professor Peter Kissinger started Bioanalytical Systems, now known as BASi, a company which currently has annual revenues of over $42 million. The company has helped develop drugs that treat such illnesses as depression, migraine headaches, cancer, pain, HIV and central nervous system diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, while in the process providing jobs for over 380 people throughout the world. University research parks present opportunities for joint public and private innovation and investment, and our nation’s university research park companies today provide over 313,000 Americans with high value employment in areas such as high technology and life sciences. In such environments of innovation, startup businesses are provided the resources they need to flourish, forming new jobs and industries. More mature companies find university research partnerships, and easy access to startup companies and suppliers with which to work. As a means of creating sustainable prosperity for our country, university research parks are an important element of America's competitiveness: shelter in the gathering storm."