Science parks: a mechanism for technology transfer

Abstract

The transfer of technology is not new. That which makes this process seem new today is the inescapable recognition of the speed of the transfer function; the acceptance that industry now is more knowledge than raw materials or power based; and the belief that the process can be managed. Over the last two or three decades there has been a slow but ever increasing recognition that science parks are potentially most useful mechanisms to facilitate the process of technology transfer. Indeed, it can be said that science parks are but a special case of the general activity of technology transfer. The specificity is derived from the fact that a particularly favourable location is developed for the siting of innovative companies close to a centre of research and dissemination of relevant knowledge, in which the transfer process is actively managed, and in which the tenant companies have need of "continuous technology transfer". This Paper considers the attributes and objectives of both technology transfer functions and science parks; the degree to which these two activities co-incide; and offers some conclusions and predictions.