University and Technology: Science and Technology Parks in the Cambridge Region

This paper reviews the recent development and growth of small and medium-sized high-technology firms in the Cambridge region of the United Kingdom, as an example of an innovative and R&D-focused business cluster associated with a major international university and successful local science and technology parks. It discusses the concept of a local innovation system and the role of the UK's national innovation system, before attempting to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Cambridge model of technology transfer and innovation as a possible paradigm of linkages between university research and local high-technology SMEs.This paper was commissioned by Confindustria, the Italian employers organisation, for publication in Italian in the forthcoming book Rapporto sulla competitivita dell'Italia: scienza, ricerca, innovazione, edited by Alberto Quadrio Curzio, Marco Fortis and Giampaolo Galli. The author is most grateful to Professor Curzio for permission to publish this commissioned research as a working paper of the ESRC Centre for Business Research.