Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The Surrey Research Park: A Case Study
of Strategic Planning for Economic
Development
Malcolm Parry
Abstract The development of the Surrey Research Park by the University of
Surrey is an addition to a number of existing strategies to collaborate with industry
that it has developed over its 120-year history. The potential to undertake this
development was based on owning a substantial land holding that the University
acquired when the Borough Council for the town of Guildford invited the
University to relocate from Battersea in London to its new location in 1966. Initial
plans for the Park in 1979 were accelerated in 1981 in response to plans by the
government to reduce funding for Higher Education in the UK. Beyond a broad
master plan for the site that was based on topography and access to the site the
plans that were developed were based on a survey of 100 companies that were
deemed to be in the target market for the site and a review of the other seven
science parks that were being developed in the UK in 1981. The findings from this
proved to be important in developing the master plan for the site. Another
important influence on the project were the objectives that were defined for the
three stakeholders in the project. Those for the University included commercial
potential, knowledge transfer and image and reputation; those for the town pri-
marily related to economic development and the plan was to help tenants gain a
competitive advantage by locating on the site. In addition a number of success
indicators were defined for the project against which to measure performance and
have remained as a useful set of parameters on which to base the assessment of the
performance of the site. The chapter sets details about the history of the park and
covers the success indicators and factors and reviews these in the context of the
original objectives for the site.
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