STP reshaping the Territories of the Future by means of SmartLands: Urban-Rural Cohesion

The election of a location for a Science and Technology Park (STP) has been, traditionally, crucial in order to consider the impact of its activity based on the level and accessibility of the resources required. However, it is more important its sphere of influence, not located geographically by territorially, and that sphere is evolving based on the evolution of the innovation ecosystem. The role of STP over a territory, a Smart-Territory has to be seen it as acting as the main driver to dynamize the economy of that space, therefore it implies to extend its roots to all the corners of the spatial area. The question is not which is the relationship between the STP and the city, but between STP and its territory conceived as urban and rural spatial area, that is to say as smart cities and smart rural generators and, in terms of knowledge economy, the fostering of the smart citizens conception: the engine of a growing SmartLand, a supra-entity among the innovation ecosystem.