The model of self-contained research parks and incubators that dominated the last 50 years is being challenged by shifts in the global economy, science and technology, and models of innovation.
IFTF describes 14 trends that will set the context for technology-based economic development, as basis for 20-year scenarios.
- 'In the first scenario, an incremental evolution of the research parks model takes place in a world of rapid, but steady and predictable change.
- 'In the second scenario, entirely new networks of R&D space emerge in a “research cloud” that challenges current models to adapt, sometimes dramatically.
- 'The third scenario, the research park models is in rapid decline as R&D becomes highly virtualized and parks’ legacy cost structure makes them obsolete for young firms.
