APTE and Tecparques sign a collaboration agreement to further relations between the spanish and portuguese technology parks and their companies

The Spanish Association of Science and Technology Parks (APTE) and the Portuguese Association of Science and Technology Parks (TECPARQUES) have signed a collaboration agreement for the two associations to jointly develop a programme of activities for promoting the parks and their member companies located in both Portugal and Spain.

APTE, 25/01/2012

The activities scheduled in the agreement include promoting the Iberian Meetings and extending them to Parks in Latin America, promoting business softlanding activities in the two countries and creation of a technology antenna for each association in Portugal.

These are some of the measures proposed in the agreement to strengthen relations between the two countries and encourage internationalisation.

The Iberian Meetings are an initiative of APTE and TECPARQUES, first conceived in 2002 as a measure for fostering innovation and development at Spain and Portugal’s Technology Parks. Policies, financing measures and prospects for business development in both countries will be debated at the meetings. At the most recent Iberian Meeting, held last October in Madrid, the opportunity was also taken to organise a technology transfer meeting between Portuguese and Spanish companies, to further their international expansion.

The sixth Iberian Meeting will be held in September at PARKURBIS, the Science and Technology Park in Covilhã (Portugal), and a technology transfer meeting between Spanish and Portuguese companies will also be organised as part of the event.

The agreement, signed by APTE’s President Felipe Romera and the President of the Portuguese Association, Antonio Tavares, was a result of the Lisbon Protocol signed in 2002, whereby the two associations undertook to set up institutional cooperation mechanisms to foster joint activities, given the geographical, cultural and linguistic proximity of both countries.

TECPARQUES – Portuguese Association of Science and Technology Parks

TECPARQUES was created in 1999, although it began its activity in 2001. Like APTE, it is a not-for-profit association, and it works towards promotion and development of the Portuguese science and technology parks and their interaction with other organisations, with a view to modernising the business fabric through technology-based innovation and knowledge transfer. TECPARQUES has 13 effective member parks and one honorary associate.

APTE – Spanish Association of Science and Technology Parks

The Spanish Association of Science and Technology Parks (www.apte.org) was created in 1988 as a not-for-profit association. Its main aim is to collaborate towards the renewal and diversification of production activity, technological progress and economic development by enhancing and raising the profile of the science and technology parks. It currently has 81 member parks throughout Spain. 49 of them are fully operative member parks and the other 32 are affiliate parks currently undergoing development. In 2010 there were a total of 5,539 companies based at the member parks, with a joint turnover of 21,475 million euros. These companies employ over 145,000 people, 25,443 of whom work in R+D.