As you will see below, the activity of Spanish science and technology parks continues to grow and provide new jobs for society as a whole. No less than 161,343 people already work in these environments, giving these professionals a new job opportunity.
Because the ecosystem in which the parks are inserted is so characteristic, that is to say, in the same place, you meet teachers, researchers, interns, entrepreneurs, big businessmen, etc..., these 161,000 people can bet on playing different roles throughout their professional career in them. By this I mean that parks are not only a place where people can"get a job", but they are places where they have the opportunity to advance and progress in their professional careers, even betting on developing new business ideas. For the development of these new professional challenges, they come into contact with other people in the same environment as the parks, whether they are other entrepreneurs or even teachers or researchers, with whom they can carry out collaborative activities that will help them to build solid and viable projects.
However, the professional career in the parks is not limited to national levels. If anything characterizes the activity in science and technology parks it is the possibility of connecting with international markets and proof of this is that every year, the number of foreign companies that set up in the parks increases considerably.
Aware of all this, in APTE we are betting this year to strengthen partnerships with institutions that help to further enhance these characteristics of science and technology parks: entrepreneurship, collaboration and internationalization. In this sense, collaboration with universities through the CRUE Spanish Universities, technology centres through FEDIT, leading ICT companies through AMETIC and access to new markets through ICEX are setting the agenda of the Association during 2017.
In addition, it is also a priority for APTE this year to get to know the innovation systems of other countries and develop alliances with them, with the aim of developing exchange activities such as, for example, student exchanges, scholarships for researchers, creation of stable mixed research groups, exchange of entrepreneurs, etc.
All the above activities will further contribute to enriching the local innovation systems in which science and technology parks operate and thus to increasing the talent and competitiveness of the people working in them.
Felipe Romera
President of APTE
