Guest blogger Anthony Townsend is director of technology development at the Institute for the Future, a California-based research group.

Experts and entrepreneurs from around the world discuss what governments can do to promote high-tech entrepreneurship and what the shape of technology entrepreneurship will be in the future.

For over 50 years, the research park model has spread throughout the developed world as a tool for technology-based economic development. The main idea behind this movement is that real estate development can seed the long-term growth of new technology industry clusters.

Today, we see the research park model being copied widely in the developing world. Africa’s first research park – the Innovation Hub in South Africa – demonstrates the possibilities of research parks to spur innovation by incubating university research spin-offs. Developing economies throughout the Global South are building research parks at a rapid pace.

However, just as the research park model matures, the nature of basic scientific research and technological innovation is changing rapidly. Science is more global than ever, presenting new opportunities for scientists in the developing world to connect to traditional centers of research, and participate in their work. The development of products and services based on new technologies is being rapidly accelerated through new design, manufacturing and distribution tools.

These trends suggest that the research park model – which focuses solely on land and leasable space – will need to grow up in order to spur developing economies. It will need to connect better globally, in order to package and deliver value to distant markets for talent and intellectual property. At the same time, we’ll need to rethink the physical design of research parks because innovation networks don’t have to be confined to a single campus or building – they span entire neighborhoods, cities and metropolitan regions.

For more information, visit the Institute for the Future’s report on the future of research parks, Future Knowledge Ecosystems. See also my blog.