City based and urban edge parks - what lessons can be learnt from each

The comparison of a the Surrey Research Park, which is a university planned and developed traditional science park, and Tech City, which is a unplanned self-generating area in London and has now been recognised and managed as a science park, reveals that many elements of these projects are transferrable but they do both have their shortcomings. Similarities are that they have both taken more than 20 years to develop but the city centre project has a much narrower range of technologies that drive innovation compared with the diversity of a traditional science park.The lesson learnt from the review is that by managing these sites they gain momentum so this element of a traditional science and technology parks can be used in self-generating clusters of companies to add value and drive growth.