High-tech companies are thriving across North America, many of them in research parks, an economic development phenomenon that has transformed R&D and spurred business-academic relationships.
Research parks need not go far to trace their roots in this country. They got their start in the 1950s with Stanford Park in Palo Alto, Calif. North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, which came on the scene in 1959, gave the research park movement the boost it needed to start a national trend. Though the trend dipped in the 1970s, it began making a revival in the 1980s and 1990s.
| Cisco Systems, Inc., a leading global supplier of enterprise networking equipment, is expanding its facilities in Research Triangle Park, N.C. |
"The term 'research park' tends to cause confusion," said Rick Finholt, executive director of the Missouri Research Park and a board member of the Association of University-Related Research Parks. "What you're really talking about is a park designed for high-tech companies. They tend to be very much research and development oriented."
University links
Not all research parks are affiliated with a university, but those that are offer some unique benefits to their tenants. Some parks provide a link to a university's telecommunications system, so companies have access to the Internet, e-mail, computer laboratories and research databases.
The same companies also have the option of hiring well-educated part-time workers in the form of students, some of whom may be groomed for permanent positions.
Universities and their affiliated research parks also often have cooperative research agreements that benefit both parties. Research parks occasionally act as incubators for business ideas generated within university systems. Private firms can provide the one thing an idea needs to be transformed into a viable product: business acumen.
Hybrid Systems, Ltd. is a computer software company located in University Park, which occupies 330 acres of the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville campus. The company uses the school's mainframe to develop software, and in exchange, the university uses Hybrid's software products, so the university connection is vital.
"That's an absolute requirement for our business," said Phil Loethen, Hybrid's director of marketing. "They have resources we can't afford.
"Everybody's happy. It's been a really good business situation for everyone involved."
Missouri Research Park
The Missouri Research Park in St. Charles County is owned and managed by the University of Missouri system. This is one example of the trend where, increasingly, universities are opting to manage their own parks themselves.
Created in 1984, the 700-acre park came under the control of the university system in 1989. The park features an 18-hole golf course and will soon have a 30- to 60-acre office park and conference center. Its 14 tenants include 12 private companies and two federal agencies.
| University Park is a 330-acre research and technology park on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. |
The park has a close relationship with the university and requires that its tenants make a good-faith effort to work with the university, by, for example, hiring students. Much of the research that takes place at the Missouri Research Park is geared not so much at creating new products, but making existing products better.
Among the Missouri Research Park's tenants are: the Zoltek Corp., which develops and produces high-purity carbon fibers primarily for the aerospace and automotive industries; Puritan Bennett Corp., which develops and produces oxygen concentrator systems; and Tetra Plastics, Inc., which develops and produces specialty thermoplastic products to be used in industrial and consumer products.
High-tech companies, like those at Missouri Research Park, tend to locate near each other, so research parks provide a natural arena for the inevitable clustering process.
Research Triangle Park
Research Triangle Park is a study in clustering. The Park has been an overwhelming success since its beginning in 1959.
The park encompasses about 15 million square feet, and employs 40,000 people at 130 companies, 97 of which are major research facilities.
In accordance with park regulations, all of the tenants are involved in research, and most have a working relationship with one of the three affiliated universities.
Robert A. Interdonato, president and CEO of F1 Consulting, Inc., moved his company to Research Triangle Park in 1996 to be near key clients, including Glaxo Wellcome, Inc., Nortel, IBM and Lockheed Martin.
"We find that other companies move out here because their clients are out here," said Interdonato.
Cisco Systems, Inc., a global supplier of enterprise networking equipment and software, has had a site in the park since the early 1990s.
"We wanted access to the talent pool that exists on the East Coast," said spokeswoman Mary Hecht-Kissell.
"Boston, Washington, D.C., Research Triangle Park and Austin, Texas are all cities that have expertise in the networking field. And there's a very high quality of life here."
At Research Triangle, the company works with all three affiliated universities -- Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
| Greenhill Technology Park in Eugene, Ore., is home to a project of Rosen Products, which is building a facility to manufacture flat-screen television monitors for the airline industry. |
"There's a strong sense of cooperation between academia, government and corporations," said Hecht-Kissell. "The three units work together very well.
"We are satisfied to the point that we will be growing the site. We consider this our East Coast headquarters."
The company's facility employs 761 people in four buildings, one of which opened in August. Two additional buildings are under construction, and Cisco plans to bring its payroll up to 2,000 by the year 2000.
The American Center
The American Center in Madison, Wis., an 800-acre site, is owned and developed by American Family Insurance, whose 840,000 square foot headquarters takes up 400 acres.
Opened in 1990, the American Center constructed its first building in 1995. So far it has 30 tenants, including Cellular One and Lucent Technologies, and 500,000 square feet developed (not including American Family Insurance's facility). Planners anticipate that the Center will be home to corporate and regional headquarters, computer centers, research and development facilities and retail commercial services.
While research parks are not for every business, they serve a vital role in nurturing ideas, growing businesses and supporting local economic development.
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