RALEIGH - President Richard Brodhead spoke in front of hundreds of international representatives at a science and technology parks convention Wednesday.
Brodhead, a member of the Research Triangle Park board of directors, presented for a session titled "Creating New Partnerships to Enhance Innovation" at the International Association of Science Parks' World Conference on Science and Technology Parks. This year, RTP hosted the events at the Raleigh Convention Center.
In his speech, Brodhead explained the mutual benefits of cooperation between research universities and science parks.
"Duke is very much benefited by the community that surrounds us," Brodhead said in an interview after the event. "It gives us an effect of mass far beyond what any university can provide for itself. It's really one of the seats of innovation in the country and we want to be a part of it."
Brodhead's speech was followed by presentations from Bill Dean, director of the Piedmont Triad Research Park in Winston-Salem, N.C., Paris Kokorotsikos, chairman and chief executive officer of Greek company Euroconsultants and Rafael Gomez, director of innovation at La Salle Innovation Park in Madrid.
The presenters emphasized the benefits of collaboration among science and technological parks, businesses, academic institutions and governmental entities provide to all involved-and ultimately to society.
The University's connection to the RTP began more than 50 years ago before the park's founding in 1959, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. Each corner of the triangular RTP headquarters building points directly toward the Duke, North Carolina State University or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campuses.
"It's a place where the ideas, the research and discovery that take place at Duke can then be translated into practice and commercial action in RTP," Schoenfeld said. He added that the park has become "a magnet for the kinds of enterprises... that want to tap into the expertise of three great universities."
In his speech, Brodhead told the international audience that companies located in RTP are not the only ones who benefit from the minds of Duke, N.C. State and UNC. Working with RTP encourages the universities to interact with each other and discover their commonalities, he said.
Brodhead cited as an example the collaboration among schools' expertise and research in energy that RTP helped bring about.
"[The Research Triangle Institute International] has spotted the possible mutualities in our energy groups... [and] helped us understand that all these things could be brought together... to make us more competitive for things like grants," he said.
RTP now houses more than 170 research and development organizations in North Carolina, and its non-profit arm Research Triangle Institute employs about 2,800 people in more than 40 countries, according to the RTI Web site. Playing host to the four-day IASP World Conference on Science and Technology Parks, RTP attracted attendants from all over the world.
"They look at RTP as one of the great success stories," Schoenfeld said. "People come from all over the world looking to emulate RTP.... It sounds like a very simple and practical thing, but it's actually very difficult.. When you can get the government, the private companies and the universities together, you have a very rare mixture."
Brodhead said this mixture helps companies and researchers capitalize on their strenghts to accomplish their goals.
"It is the nature of university culture that a lot of researchers don't think about how to turn... research discovery and innovation into development and production," he said in his speech. "It is an essential advantage... to have access to a research and development apparatus... to help researchers and inventors carry their ideas into development and implementation."
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