The main road that cuts through the pine forest gives access to buildings that are hidden far and wide in nature, all located around fifteen kilometres from Antibes, in a very strong smell of conifers where cicadas rustle. \"Sophia Antipolis is 1,300 companies and 30,000 employees united around a shared commitment to research and development,\" explains Annie Ovigny, cultural and communications officer at the Fondation Sophia-Antipolis, who points out that the burning ecological issue has been topical here since the 1970s. \"That's why the buildings are hidden in nature, that's why they are spaced out and that's why they can't be taller than the trees\", she continues.<\/p>\n
And while all the companies on the site specialise in cutting-edge research - areas such as the Internet, mobile telephony, information technology and multimedia have their place here - life sciences, water management and sustainable development are rising stars. \"We understood well before the time that ecology was crucial,\" says Annie Ovigny.<\/p>\n
In fact, pushing its vocation as a research centre to the limit, Sophia has been involved in training right from the start. \"It all began in 1969 with Pierre Laffitte, then director of the \u00c9cole des Mines de Paris,\" recalls Annie Ovigny. Today, the university centre has 5,000 students and over 500 doctoral students; the \u00c9cole des Mines branch continues to attract students, sharing the pine forest with engineering schools, IUTs and IUPs, but also with a bilingual English primary school and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, which is open to the humanities. \"Everything here revolves around education and research, which is why it's important to activate this intellectual ferment at all levels\", explains the cultural attach\u00e9, whose role is precisely to organise artistic events, symposiums and forums around which researchers, students and the general public can meet and exchange ideas. \"Our aim was to create a Florence for the 21st century and to set it up in the garrigue,\" explains Pierre Laffitte, a visionary now in his eighties, still bursting with energy and projects.<\/p>\n
A modern and prosperous Florence, to say the least, because according to the statistics, this vast 24,000-hectare site, which includes not only companies and research centres, but also a dozen hotels, housing and shops, generates around \u20ac6 million a year. A great source of revenue for the region, equivalent to that generated by tourism. And despite the various crises that have marked the history of Sophia - a name given in homage to Pierre Laffitte's wife, Sophie, but also in reference to ancient wisdom - the number of employees and revenue has continued to grow. And the business has continued to diversify.<\/p>\n
Since 2004, 71 competitiveness clusters have been created, as well as innovative projects, to enable young researchers to be supported in their work. Even if the issue of funding projects remains a thorny one, delegations from all over the world continue to take an interest in the technology park. There's a microclimate here that's conducive to innovation,\" explains Pierre Laffitte, \"but the main thing is to achieve a globalisation that's full of tradition, a kind of modern humanism.<\/p>\n
If France's Silicon Valley has had an exemplary track record, it's because it has been the only technology park with an international strategy since its inception. \"In fact, the very first people to set up on the site were Americans,\" points out Pierre Laffitte, adding that it was then the L'Or\u00e9al group that placed its bets on Sophia: \"Today, we have one of the largest dermatological research centres in the world here.<\/p>\n
Sophia Antipolis' other great feature is its ability to anticipate. \"Back in the 1970s, we had already developed experimental solar houses, we were interested in ecology... and our next major project will be linked to Euromed\", explains Pierre Laffitte. This is a project that has been developed on the instructions of the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace to encourage competitive clusters by building on a cluster dedicated to innovation in the Mediterranean. The idea of associating the Mediterranean countries with Europe doubles the number of brains, which is also in the interests of Europe itself,\" notes Pierre Laffitte. If Egypt, Morocco and other Mediterranean countries double their standard of living, that can only be good for us too!<\/p>\n
After founding the Fils d'Abraham association, creating a small research park in Bethlehem and signing an agreement with Bio-Negev in Israel, the decidedly active octogenarian set up Smart Valley in Egypt five years ago. \"Today, 300 million tourists visit the Mediterranean every year, and that poses a problem. So, with the National Research Agency, we are studying the possibility of new tourism zones linked to ecology, technology and culture\", he points out.<\/p>\n
And as Pierre Laffitte is a humanist entrepreneur without borders, one of his many projects would be to set up a major services platform to help European SMEs expand internationally. \"There is no European innovation area, so we need to find a way of facilitating international development, for example within the framework of the Euromed countries. We have the ideas, we have the will and we have the tenacity. It should work.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"