IASP Training Course for African technology parks

On 11th -12th October, IASP organised a training course on behalf of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, a regional multilateral development finance institution established to contribute to the economic development and social progress of African countries that are the institution’s Regional Member Countries (RMCs).

AfDB is supporting the development of some technology parks across Africa (Senegal, Cape Verde, Mali) and IASP delivered an ad hoc training course on technology parks management, trends and innovation, directed at government representatives and officials behind the tech park projects being developed.

For this course, moderated by Alicia Shelley, IASP counted on the perspective of a number of international experts, starting with McLean Sibanda (Bigen Global, South Africa) who gave a global overview of the STP industry, covering strategic models; STPs and the environment; and factors for success and failure.

Building on this, Deepanwita Chattopadhyay (IKP Knowledge Park, India) presented ownership and governance options for STPs, focusing on the PPP model and showing how it contributes to the development and sustainable operation of STPs. In terms of new projects, a key question is always how to attract potential tenants and Nikos Giannoulidis (Euroconsultants, Greece) discussed what to bear in mind when looking to build innovation communities; processes as well as potential challenges and how to overcome these.

A differentiating factor for STPs/AOIs and similar innovation spaces is of course the value-added services and Flavia Fiorin (TECNOPUC, Brazil) covered the strategy for such services, considering specific services that an STP could offer, the needs of the innovation ecosystem as a whole as well as the STP tenants’ profile.

Finally, Martin Goroško (Tallinn Science Park TEHNOPOL Foundation, Estonia) brought the course to a close with a deep dive into business incubation/creation, giving key insights on how to stimulate and grow an entrepreneurial community; supporting start-ups as well as the role and importance of business incubators.

It was a pleasure to collaborate with AfDB in this course and we look forward to future joint activities, as well as building relationships with technology parks in the continent.

To find out more about IASP's knowledge and consultancy services, please visit https://www.iasp.ws/activities/services.