Parks of science—based industries in Israel

Abstract

Universities and Research Institutes can become the centre of science based industries, without altering their character. In Israel, it was the Weizmann Institute of Science which first posed the question squarely, of how it could best contribute to the rapid development of science-based industry, without any industrial expertise. The Institute realized that it could give substantial aid to entrepreneurs during the initial high-risk phase of their enterprise. It put at the disposal of such entrepreneurs 300 m 2 each for 3 y, as well as scientific advice and all its facilities and amenities against a nominal fee. It also established simple criteria in order to assess a candidate's prospects and admissibility under this scheme. The risks for the investors were thereby considerably reduced, which caused an influx of entrepreneurs. Next to the Institute, land was set aside and developed to accomodate fledgling industries which had successfully passed the incubation period at the Institute, had shown promise and found investors to sustain their prospects. This became the first park for science-based industries in Israel, with 30 firms employing 3000 people at the end of 15 y. The example was successfully copied by the major universities in Israel.