RESEARCH PARK & INNOVATION CLUSTER
The KAUST Research Park and Innovation Cluster will nurture technology businesses by facilitating the development of venture capital during start-up, early product or technology development, and at different growth stages.
The Cluster will provide entrepreneurial training that will increase the likelihood of a venture’s success through comprehensive business assistance and venture planning in the start-up, spin-off, and product-line expansion phases of development; through management team and personal leadership development.
The Cluster’s main objectives:
- add economic vitality and social diversity to the KAUST community
- bring compatible research and business enterprises within close proximity to KAUST Research Centers and the University Campus
- foster economic development and technology transfer
- create a culture of entrepreneurship
- facilitate access to venture capital
- create a university-industry collaborative working environment
- attract and support exceptionally talented people
- build and maintain networking relationships with other world-class research institutions and with exceptional companies worldwide whose research agenda intersects with the KAUST mission
- pursue strategic advances in complex engineering systems and systems-level technologies that have the potential to spawn new industries or to radically transform existing industries
- foster applied R&D by making available “single tenant” facilities and the full range of commercial services to corporate and other commercial participants
Facilities & Equipment:
The Research Park's first phase will consist of several buildings that will open along with the University in September 2009. The buildings will be composed of the initial facilities and offices of the Innovation Cluster.
These buildings will be located strategically at the south end of the primary academic corridor of the campus, providing a creative and high-quality transitional use of space between the main research buildings and the campus core, the Research Park, and the site of a future off-campus Conference Center.
The Innovation Cluster consists of three buildings linked by bridges. One building will be devoted to light laboratories, the second for medium-to-intensive labs, and third for high bay needs and explosion-resistant construction needs.
Modules will be available to meet the needs of start-up companies, whether for laboratories, offices or a combination of the two.
Furthermore, these spaces can quickly be converted to offices as needed. At completion, these buildings will house a mix of labs and office space.