British Columbia's Discovery Parks a good model for Australia

The developer of British Columbia's Discovery Parks -- technology parks based on four campuses around the Canadian province -- believes the Discovery Park model would be advantageous to the development of Australian innovation and technology.

"It would be quite opportune to set up an entity like [Discovery Parks] here and get ahead of the game," CEO Mark Betteridge told attendees at Commercialise 2003 in Melbourne this week.

British Columbia's Discovery Parks grew from a government-funded initiative established in 1979 to support the growth of high tech industry, and is now a privatised organisation which develops land and buildings to house companies and ventures engaged in scientific and technological R&D and manufacturing.

Discovery Parks works primarily with the four major universities in BC -- University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology and the University of Victoria -- in addition to two off-campus sites -- Discovery Place and False Creek Research Park.

The facilities are used to house companies and ventures emerging from innovative R&D on campus. The point is to have research and commercialisation activities in close proximity to each other, with Discovery Parks, not the university, shouldering the risks, said Betteridge.

Currently there are 39 companies occupying space in Discovery Parks buildings on the four campuses, in addition to another nine companies in off-campus locations.

Financing, marketing and management of the parks is the responsibility of Discovery Parks, which initially used profits from development of the original Discovery Place research park to establish the on-campus facilities. The organisation is now self-perpetuating, using a combination of equity and commercial mortgages to fund the development of new buildings on campus land.

And in a unique twist, all profits not used for further development projects are fed back into the universities through the Discovery Parks Foundation to support further R&D activities. To date, CAD$7 million has been donated to benefiting institutions for this purpose, Betteridge said, on top of $14 million equity invested in new buildings.

According to Betteridge, the buildings developed by Discovery Park are specifically designed for R&D activities, incorporating features like lab benches, fume hood, and air handling systems.

"We build buildings and have learned how to do that very well," he said. "We have one foot in the private sector and one foot in the academic institutions."

But while Discovery Parks is considered one of the most innovative and successful providers of R&D space in North America, Betteridge said other regions have not picked up the model, although there has been interest from Toronto, as well as several sites in the Middle East.

"I don't know why it hasn't been copied. My theory is that it is a bit intimidating, it needs someone with vision," he said.

And if a suitable opportunity comes up to work with Australian universities or governments on the concept, Betteridge would jump at the chance, he said.

"If I could see an opportunity for doing business [in Australia] I'd love to do it, either as a consultant on potential business models or even as an implementer," he said.