PARCON-ESPOL

INTRODUCTION

The world's first Technology Park was created at Stanford University in 1949: The Silicon Valley, which soon became a "highly innovative environment" conducive to the development of high-tech companies, particularly in electronics and computersystems, including Hewlett-Packard.

THEORETICAL

Years later, in association with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Boston's Route 128" emerges, whose development involved other prestigious universities such as Harvard, Boston, Massachusetts. There are other similar experiences in several cities in the United States, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, North Carolina, Seattle, Florida, Colorado, Phoenix, San Antonio, Michigan, among others. These experiences have one thing in common: "the university-industry-research synergy" venture capital for high-tech companies and entrepreneurship that rewards innovation.

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century,several technology parks were created in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Latin America with different names: Science Park (United Kingdom, Aston Science

Park), Technopolis (Japan), Cities of Science (South Korea), Technopark (France, Belgium), Cities of Knowledge (Panama), Science-based Industrial Park (Taiwan). They all had common factors:

1. Active participation of the central and local state that supported high-tech projects for various reasons, from economical to defense reasons;

2. Leadership of universities capable of generating new basic and applied scientific knowledge and forming the advanced human talent required by the companies that use scientific-technological knowledge intensively; and,

3. A corporate culture that encourages innovation and investment in high-tech industries.

In parallel to large technology-based industrial conglomerates, UNESCO promotes today the creation of Knowledge Parks understood as:

A mechanism to cultivate an innovative business environment; A space that is developed in partnership with universities capable of doing

research, producing synergy and transferring technology; A mechanism to speed up the emergence and development of small and

medium-sized technology-based firms (business incubation), those with access to resources, services, research;

A mechanism that promotes the rapid commercialization of technology.

In the late twentieth century, ESPOLsuggested Ecuador to agree on the need for "a new development model based on knowledge", understood in economics as a two-lane process: traditional economy, which should be enhanced from knowledge, exploiting comparative advantages, and the economy that produces goods and services with high added value.

This process has the global context of the new economy in its various dimensions, as Ecuador requires currency, needs to diversify export production and expand trade relations; it recognizes the need for a unitary, diverse and supportive country, where the Central State, autonomous regions, sectional bodiescoexist in harmony, creating synergy towards the overall development of Ecuador and promoting local development, and is guided by the principles of unity, freedom of creation, complementarity, equity,

sustainability, accountability and transparency in processes and results.

The PARCON-ESPOL Knowledge Park, moves forward in it development process whose organic and scientific genesis dates back to the 90s with the creation and equipment of several specialized research centers such as Biotechnology, Information Technology, and other newly created ones which endowed ESPOL with PhD degrees and an important, but sufficient, physical and technological infrastructure, with an investment of over $ 10 million dollars, without considering CENAIM.

ENDING

Today, the Knowledge Park (PARCON-ESPOL) is the most important university project that will contribute to modifying the structure of the domestic production of goods and services characterized for being primary exporter; to strengthening the National

System of Science, Technology and Innovation, which should generate and transfer the knowledge demanded by the comprehensive development of Ecuador; and to improving the higher education system, which should form advanced human talent, do significant research and articulate teaching and research to the actual and potential demands of society.