FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Greater Toronto Research Parks Drive Region’s Robust Growth in North American Tech Talent

Greater Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District, David Johnston R + T Park and McMaster Innovation Park co-host AURP’s 2022 International Conference, Sept. 19-22

Tucson, Arizona, September 1, 2022 – With the entrepreneurial dynamism behind Greater Toronto's MaRS Discovery District, David Johnston Research + Technology Park and McMaster Innovation Park, the Toronto region has netted the third most technology-based employment growth between 2016 and 2021 among 50 North American markets, according to a recent report from CRBE.

Greater Toronto, in this time period, saw the creation of 88,900 new technology jobs – following just San Francisco and Seattle’s related job growth rates, according to the report.

With Greater Toronto’s emergence as one of the top innovation and technology job creation markets in North America, the power of university research parks, innovation districts and tech hubs continues to prove essential to this entrepreneurial and economic vigor.

“University research parks and innovation districts – from Oklahoma City Innovation District, the University of Utah Research Park to Georgia Tech’s Tech Square – are accelerating economic energy in Greater Toronto and across North America,” said Vickie Palmer, AURP CEO. “These research parks and innovation districts house thousands of companies and talent working on commercializing critical technologies such as COVID-19 vaccines, space tech, cyber security and quantum computing.”

As it stands, startups with university research parks and innovation districts create 23% more high-wage jobs than the overall industry job creation average, according to a study – Communities of Innovation – by TEConomy Partners. The study also found startups within university research parks and innovation districts are more successful than new companies started outside of parks with a 75% five-year startup business survival rate compared with a 49% national startup average.

In a move to bring the global research parks community together to learn about the Toronto region’s fast-paced rates entrepreneurial and economic growth, the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) along with co-hosts MaRS Discovery District, David Johnston Research + Technology Park and McMaster Innovation Park will hold the AURP 2022 International Conference, September 19-22, in Toronto, Ontario.

Since 1986, AURP’s Annual International Conference brings together 250+ research park and innovation district leaders for high-impact knowledge exchange and networking with the industry’s premier innovation experts and innovators.

With this year’s conference theme of Global Innovation at Scale: Robust Strategy. Delivering Impact, the Ontario Life Science Corridor, which includes the Toronto, Hamilton and Waterloo regions, represents an ideal host location for AURP’s 2022 International Conference.

Situated at the MaRS Centre, the conference schedule will include tours of the MaRS Discovery District and its new Waterfront Innovation Centre, plus the University of Toronto. Sessions include global business strategies advancing sectors including entrepreneurial networks; lifesciences and biotechnology; partnerships to accelerate innovation and drive workforce development; and more.

AURP’s Annual Conference is hosted each year by an AURP member university or institution, giving conference attendees dynamic opportunities to learn about and see first-hand how other university research communities operate and chart their entrepreneurial growth paths.

Media:
Inquire here about registration passes to attend the conference: 
https://international.aurp.net/

About AURP:
AURP, a non-profit international organization with offices in the Washington, D.C. area at the University of Maryland Discovery District and in Tucson, Arizona, at the University of Arizona Tech Park, focuses on creating communities of innovation and education for research parks, both operating and planned, plus innovation districts, incubators, accelerators and the businesses that support the research park industry. AURP and its global membership promote research, institute-industry relations and innovation districts to foster innovation and to facilitate the transfer of technology from such institutions to the private sector. Learn more: www.aurp.net

Media Contact:
Ken Berlack
AURP
[email protected]
 

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