The impact of the intense activity that took place in Spanish science and technology parks as a result of the pandemic is clearly reflected in the statistics presented in  APTE General Assembly where it can be seen that, although the number of companies and their turnover fell slightly, total employment and employment in research and development activities rose by 3.3% and 2.7%, respectively. This leads us to believe that this period saw an increase in the workforces of these companies and entities.

Another piece of data that leads us to corroborate the increase in R&D&I activities carried out by companies and entities in science and technology parks during the pandemic is the number of patents applied for during 2020, a figure that increases by 10% compared to 2019.

It should also be noted that that the companies and entities of the parks dedicated to the ICT sector, which account for 27% of the total, had a strong activity in the development of solutions to prevent or mitigate the consequences of the pandemic, such as tracking systems, geolocation, implementation of teleworking, temperature measurement systems, chatbots, cybersecurity solutions, online training platforms, etc.

In short, during the pandemic year, science and technology parks and their innovation ecosystems have once again demonstrated that they are resilient environments and that they can adapt to difficult situations because they base their activity on R&D&I, digitization and network collaboration with the main agents of the Spanish innovation system.

The directory of the Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain is the document in which the entity reflects the situation and activity of Spanish science and technology parks after a year marked by the pandemic.

» More information: APTE website [+]