Engaging Science Parks and Incubators to Meet the Needs for Skills Upgrading in SMEs : The case of Jönköping

Whereas R&D is important for innovation and growth, other factors crucially contribute to enabling the diffusion and use of technology widely in the economy. This paper examines particularly the challenges confronting SMEs in the upgrading of skills. Measures bridging the supply of general training by universities and the demand for idiosyncratic skills on the part of SMEs should be paralleled by those that mobilise more complementary contributions of external professional service providers. Science parks and incubators can help foster a more favourable interface between academia and business in several respects. Sweden, being a country with high R&D-intensity, strongly internationalised big business and extensive research in universities, needs to cherish new approaches in this area. Reviewing the experience of Science Park Jönköping in cooperation with Jönköping University, the paper presents a number of lessons and conclusions how, and by which actors, more relevant capabilities and matching roles may be cherished