Sophia Antipolis

In 2019 Jinan Innovation Zone signed a cooperation framework agreement with Sophia Antipolis in France.

Sophia Antipolis is Europe’s largest technology science park with more than 2.500 international companies with over 38.000 employees from 80 different countries. The park, founded in 1969, over the years has become a world reference in terms of innovation, research and development and is located in the surroundings of Nice in the south of France. Each year more than 1,000 new jobs are created in the technopole in key fields such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology and autonomous and connected vehicles.

Today, Sophia Antipolis is an innovation laboratory where private R&D centres share the arena with public laboratories and training sectors to encourage the exchanging of ideas and scientific and technological innovation among researchers, industrialists, students and educators. On the basis of this collective intelligence and partnerships forged over the years, Sophia Antipolis has showed an exceptional capacity for adaptation in response to economic crises and technological revolutions.

Local research activities take the form of partnerships between the various research institutions (Mixed Research Units) in all major scientific domains. Several MRU laboratories are located in the Sophia Antipolis technology park, active in the fields of health (IPMC), information sciences and technologies and engineering (I3S), telecommunications (LEAT), physics (INPHYNI, INLN), materials and semi-conductors (CRHEA, CEMEF), human and social sciences (GREDEG), agriculture and the environment (ISA) and geosciences (Géoazur), etc. (Non-exhaustive list)

For more information about Sophia Antipolis, check the website

Cooperation between Sophia Antipolis and Jinan Innovation Zone

To benefit from each others innovation ecosystems both our science parks have set up a cooperation framework, by which companies, institutes and researchers from both sides are stimulated and facilitated to work together on innovative projects, which will shape the world of tomorrow. Key companies from JIZ will also participate in the Sophia Antipolis mentorship programme for innovation management to learn about the innovation ecosystem in Sophia Antipolis and exchange best practises on innovation in both countries.

Cooperation activities:

• Exchange of cooperation requirements from companies from both sides

• Company matchmaking events

• Webinars and conferences about innovation and best practises

• Bilateral visits from delegations of government- and company representatives

• Facilitate a soft landing for foreign companies at both sides

• Introduction of companies in each others markets