Manchester Science Parks hosts international workshop

Manchester Science Parks (msp) hosted a two day International Association of Science Parks (IASP) division workshop on ‘Measuring the success of science parks’ on 6th and 7th October.

Attended by 50 delegates from 14 European countries, the conference was based on the premise that while every science park may have a different business model, the question ‘How do you know you are successful?’ always needs to be answered and measures put in place.

The aim of the conference was to generate guidance on how science park managers can identify their own success factors via participative workshops and case study presentations from leading IASP members. This would then be used to create performance measurement tools that support those characteristics.

Jane Davies, msp chief executive and president of the IASP advisory council, commented on the conclusions generated by the workshop.

“While there is no catch-all answer to the question ‘How do we measure success?’ there was a general consensus as to what characteristics most successful science parks exhibit.

“In essence, this was; customer satisfaction; how well integrated the tenant community is with local universities and knowledge assets and how valuable the ‘brand’ of the science park is to the tenants and the city – all things msp does well.

“For science parks to flourish and fully contribute to economic regeneration in their home city, we must all be prepared to share knowledge and best practice, which we have done during this conference.”

IASP director general, Luis Sanz, announced the formation of an expert team who will take this work further and produce a best practice guide for science parks around the world. Justyna Dabrowska, innovation project manager at msp, will be a member of this team.

Ends.