WHY A SCIENCE PARK?

Science parks, in the true sense, are differentiated from ordinary business parks and other managed accommodation in several important aspects.  These arise principally from the selection criteria applied to incoming tenants and from the links to academia and research organisations.

The United Kingdom Science Park Association defines a science park as being a business support and technology transfer initiative that:

• encourages and supports the start-up and incubation of innovation-led, high-growth, knowledge-based businesses;
• provides an environment where larger and international businesses can develop specific and close interactions with a particular centre of knowledge creation for their mutual benefit;
• has formal and operational links with centres of knowledge creation such as universities, higher education institutes and research organisations.

Statistics also seem to show that companies located on UK science parks tend to grow more rapidly and have higher rates of product innovation than those located elsewhere.

By bringing together tenant companies from various specialisms in technology, creative and knowledge-based sectors the potential is created for establishing profitable collaborative activities and other networking opportunities.

Most science parks also have strong links with a host university - in our case the University of Wolverhampton - which add further opportunities for obtaining support in matters ranging from new product or service development through to graduate recruitment.