VIVRE SA VILLE

The technology park whose turnover today hits €5.6 billion, equal to that of the Côte d’Azur's tourist industry, continues its development with an ambitious plan through to 2030.

In the late 1960s the idea of building a technology innovation hub out in the countryside of a region associated with tourism might have seemed utterly utopian. And yet, “with nigh-on 5000 researchers and 2500 firms employing 38,000 people in a technology park that is 90% green spaces, that initial leap of faith has brought unarguable success,” enthuses Jean Leonetti, who chairs the Communauté d’Agglomération Sophia Antipolis (cluster community). The economic venture came about thanks to local-born politician Pierre Laffitte's bold vision: although Paris centralised the major part of France's business dynamics, he pushed the idea of creating from scratch a pool of intelligence focused on sharing and diversity in the South. The project launched in 1969 covered 2400 hectares spread over the local council areas of Valbonne, Biot, Mougins, Vallauris and Antibes.

Sixty-seven nationalities
From its initial years Sophia Antipolis drew big players. The Institut Français du Pétrole subsidiary Franlab was the first to move in, in 1974, and by the early 1980s the park was home to 100 businesses, among them Air France's global booking centre, Thomson, Matra, France Télécom, Dow Chemical, Digital Equipment and L’Oréal. Converts to the idea also included higher-education establishments and research laboratories, such as the Ecole des Mines, the CNRS, INRIA, INRA and the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Nice that would grow into SKEMA. That initial utopian vision became a very concrete reality: a fertile hub of advanced technology, encouraging synergies between academics, research centres, big groups and start-ups, away from the stressful and polluted environments of major cities. Among the innovations that have marked Sophia Antipolis's history we should mention analysis of satellite images, finalisation of the GSM standard, 3D printing, the contactless smartcard and cancer-detection algorithms.

Europe's first technology park
Today enjoying worldwide repute as a digital player, Sophia Antipolis is focusing its attentions on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, big data and the internet of things, with a view to inventing the applications and uses of tomorrow. Its centres of excellence are concentrating research on autonomous vehicles, healthcare and biotechnologies, sportech, fintech and proptech, while through Air France, Amadeus, Conztanz and Travelaer the history of traveltech remains inseparably connected with that of a technology park whose innovation energies have by no means run out of steam. Presently it is working on two far-reaching projects. The first is the Ecotone Antibes ecology campus focused on key technologies, which is to host a replica of Xavier Niel's Station F. The second is the Pôle de l’Innovation, a strategic new hub for promoting entrepreneurship and accompanying businesses in their creation and development. These will further boost the park's attractiveness and that of its fast-developing residential districts in Antibes, Biot and Valbonne.

Par Eve Chatelet