Welcome messages

Herbert Chen

IASP President

Dear delegates, colleagues and friends,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to IASP’s 40^th World Conference on Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, which will be held in Luxembourg from 12-15 September 2023.

At this great international event, our discussions will be focused on the theme of “Megatrends in innovation ecosystems” and their impact for science parks and areas of innovation. It is a theme that invites us to look to the future, to make predictions and come up with innovative solutions, striving together to bring about our preferred version of the future.

With the rich contribution and collaboration of members, experts and practitioners from around the world, we will examine the impacts of megatrends worldwide, and look at the role that our industry can play in shaping them and how it remains in the vanguard of change, both today and tomorrow.

I offer my thanks to our local host Technoport, as well as the wider innovation community of Luxembourg. Recognised as a strong innovator, and home to over 170 nationalities and a myriad of sectors, I’m sure we will all learn much, inspire each other, and gain new insights from our local peers and colleagues from around the world.

Ebba Lund

IASP CEO

Dear world conference delegates,

Every IASP World Conference brings together a unique combination of global innovation managers and agents, but this year’s event is particularly special. It will be IASP’s 40^th World Conference, and we are delighted to be meeting in Luxembourg to celebrate this milestone for our association.

Although we may reflect on the long history that brought us here, it is the future that will be the main focus of our conference, as we explore the impact of megatrends. As global and future-orientated organisations, science parks and areas of innovation are ideally placed to use our knowledge to observe and innovate to the benefit of our communities, cities and regions.

This year we’re especially pleased to be in Luxembourg, a small country at the heart of Europe with a rich history and a dynamic innovation ecosystem. Technoport, our local member and host, strives to foster collaboration across sectors, and well as hosting the 40^th IASP World Conference, 2023 also marks their 25^th birthday, so I know we will have much to celebrate as well as much to learn!

I look forward to seeing you all in Luxembourg and gain inspiration for the future from our global innovation community.

Diego De Biasio

Technoport CEO

Dear colleagues and peers

It is a great pleasure for us to welcome you in Luxembourg for this 40th World Conference of IASP and to have the chance to celebrate a milestone like our 25th anniversary with all of you. Our challenge now will be to make you discover the diversity of Luxembourg in just 4 days.

Looking at the impact of megatrends is of course not trivial for any of us but I think this is even more true for a small country like Luxembourg. Small countries, compared to larger ones, need to constantly reinvent themselves in a growing, globalized, interconnected and multidisciplinary world and have just a limited number of choices they can make in terms of future economic and societal developments. This mainly because of a different amount and allocation of resources. For us, this conference is a unique opportunity to exchange with peers from all over the world, to confront our future projects with fresh and new ideas so to potentially improve them and finally to develop fruitful collaborations for the future.

Historically speaking, Luxembourg benefited from the contribution of great minds and innovators to shift from agriculture, to the steel industry and then the banking and finance sector, which is still today the predominant sector. But other sectors have been explored recently. A great example is the implementation of a pro-active policy and framework that has led to the development of a growing space sector over the last 5 years.

Now how can Luxembourg position itself in sectors like health, mobility and/or logistics? What niches can we exploit given our characteristics? What type of economic and societal development do we want to achieve or target for our future generations? These are all questions and challenges we need to tackle in the coming years.

We’re sure that the IASP world conference will be a great source of inspiration for all of us, and we are all looking forward to build this future together with you.