The future of science parks and areas of innovation

The successful development of science parks is dependent on the relevance and delivery of a range of value propositions they offer to their stakeholders. Experience has shown that the benefits of these value propositions are ‘place based’ and ‘time dependent’, influenced by the prevailing technology, social and business environments in which they operate.The delivery of these benefits is dependent on the relationship that is developed between entrepreneurs, corporates, academia and government in creating these projects, and their performance is dependent on economic, physical and networking assets they create and deploy.This paper looks at some of the history that has influenced the development of parks, lessons learnt from their planning, development and operation. It reviews these details in the context of new models for developing ‘innovation districts’, influencing ‘city planning’ and supporting ‘smart specialisation strategies’ that will continue to support the delivery of effective value propositions.