From Science Parks to Innovation Districts Research Facility Development in Legacy Cities on the Northeast Corridor Working Paper 2015/008 August 2015 Eugenie L. Birch Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research Department of City and Regional Planning School of Design Co-Director, Penn Institute for Urban Research University of Pennsylvania Contact Information:
[email protected] Understanding our cities…. Understanding our world From Science Parks to Innovation Districts 2 Introduction Research and development (R&D) drives advanced economies worldwide. It is this that provides the foundation for the new knowledge, products, and processes that, in turn, become new industries, create jobs and serve as the source of economic growth. Key areas for R&D are in what is called the knowledge and technology industries (KTI) that consist of high technology manufacturing (e.g. aircraft, spacecraft, pharmaceuticals) and knowledge-intensive services (commercial business, financial and communication services). KTI, which account f or 27% of the worldwide Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are extremely important to the United States, in particular, representing 40% of the U.S. GDP. In fact, the U.S is the world’s largest KTI producer – contributing 27% of the total HT manufacturing and 32% of the KI services.1 In order to grow and maintain these positions, the United States, like its peers in Europe and Asia who are also large contributors, has built an extensive R&D infrastructure composed of three strong players: the private sector, the public sector and universities. In terms of expenditures and numbers of employees, the private sector dominates the R&D enterprise, but the university sector, largely funded by the US government, is also an important component both directly and indirectly.