Technopole
Technopole refers to a center of high-tech manufacturing and information-based quaternary industry.[1]
These may be developed by the private sector or by the co-operation or partnership between the public and private sectors. Governments of all levels promote them as a panacea for economies hurt by economic restructuring. Large corporations and small business locate in technopoles. Networking between other firms is important and made possible by technological advances.
Technopoles are combined technological and business centers specifically established around recognized educational and research institutes.
The Technopol Program of Lower Austria is a trendsetter in implementing the linkage of education/training, research and business. Lower Austria’s three Technopols are already setting international standards: Technopol Krems in the fields of biotech and regenerative medicine, Technopol Tulln in environmental biotechnology and agrobiotechnology, Technopol Wiener Neustadt in microsystems engineering, tribology and medical systems technology.
There are several definitions for "technopol" in an international context, whereby focus is usually placed on the existence of four factors:
- First, a critical mass of R&D facilities which carry out research in one or more relevant areas and which have established the appropriate infrastructure. * Second, the immediate spatial vicinity to university institutions is essential in order to link research to instruction.
- The third criterion is the presence of competent companies as source of demand for R&D competence and "users" of know-how generated at the Technopol on the international market.
- Finally, there must be sufficient company settlement area immediately adjacent to the competence bearers in order to enable technology-oriented start-ups and spin-offs the possibility of settlement.
Factors important to investors include:
- Good buildings and building sites
- An attractive environmental setting
- Excellent highway access and proximity to an international airport
- Excellent international tele-communication facilities
- Good quality housing for managers and,
- Easy access to a substantial pool of well trained and motivated labour
The aim is to create new industrial jobs to replace jobs lost from old industries that are contracting. However, re-industrialisation using these sorts of industries creates fewer jobs than are lost.
Writer Joel Stratte-McClure of Time Magazine described a technopole in southern France called Sophia Antipolis which had 1,200 companies in a sprawling development twenty minutes away from the airport in Nice.[2][3] According to the report, the technopole featured hiking trails and jogging paths and riding stables and golf courses and signs which indicate the names of various species of plants, and with street names which were "slightly pretentious" such as "Rue Dostoevski" and "Rue Albert Einstein" criss-crossing rolling hills with pine trees.[2] There are reflecting pools, although the layout was criticized as somewhat "confusing" for taxi drivers.[2]
References
- ↑ Lee Artz, Yahya R. Kamalipour, editors (2003). "The globalization of corporate media hegemony". State University of New York Press. Retrieved 2010-06-16. "see p. 94;"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 JOEL STRATTE-MCCLURE (October 2, 2000). "A French Exception to the Science Park Rule". Time EUROPE Magazine. Retrieved 2010-06-16. "The 1,200 companies located in the sprawling development, which gets its name from the Greek words for wisdom and the nearby town of Antibes, are just a 20-minute drive from the Nice-Côte d'Azur airport and the Mediterranean Sea. Nice-based taxi drivers often have trouble — sometimes legitimately, sometimes intentionally — locating both start-ups and multinationals. To be fair, the technopole's confusing layout can present a challenge. The maze of roads — many with slightly pretentious names like Rue Dostoevski and Rue Albert Einstein — crisscross 2,300 hectares of rolling, pine-covered hills."
- ↑ JOEL STRATTE-MCCLURE (October 2, 2000). "A French Exception to the Science Park Rule". Time EUROPE Magazine. Retrieved 2010-06-16. "Once in Sophia, it's easy to take a break from mind-numbing high-tech conferences, meetings and PowerPoint presentations. The environs boast scores of well-maintained hiking trails and jogging paths as well as two riding stables and 10 golf courses. You can stroll a well-marked 13-km path along the Brague, a stream that runs between Valbonne and Biot, two villages on the park's periphery. The municipal authorities have put up French-language signs identifying local flora and fauna and the walk features zen-like reflection pools."