(

wisdom Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowled ...

), gr, (Ἀντίπολις, antipolis) ("opposite city" from its position on the opposite side of the Var estuary from Nice, also former name of

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France, on the Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is in the commune of Antibes and the Sop ...

, part of the technology park) , postal_code = 06220 (Vallauris), 06250 (Mougins), 06410 (Biot), 06560 (Valbonne), 06600 (Antibes) , coordinates = , pushpin_map = France#France Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur , website
sophia-antipolis.fr
Sophia Antipolis is a 2,400 hectare

technology park A science park (also called a "university research park", "technology park”, "technopark", “technopole", or a "science and technology park" (STP)) is defined as being a property-based development that accommodates and fosters the growt ...

in southeast

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, and as of 2021 home to 2,500 companies, valued today at more than 5.6 billion euros and employing more than 38,000 people counting more than 80 nationalities. The park is known to be Europe's first science and technology hub. The technology park is also a platform, cluster and creation-hub for

start-ups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

. The " technopole" houses primarily companies in the fields of

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than tha ...

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemi ...

and

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

. Several institutions of higher learning are also located here, along with the European headquarters of W3C, ETSI, European Society of Cardiology, etc. The park is supported by the ''Sophia Antipolis Foundation'', which aims to support "technological and scientific innovation and research projects at the service of mankind and our environment." The foundations honorary chairman is Pierre Laffitte and its president is Jean-Pierre Mascarelli, who is also president of SYMISA, the ''Sophia Antipolis Joint Association'', which is "responsible for managing land, equipment, marketing and upkeeping the park and is involved with coordination activities for harmonious development of the technology park."

Naming

Sophia Antipolis is named after

Sophie Glikman-Toumarkine Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess of ...

, the wife of French Senator Pierre Laffitte, founder of the park, and incidentally,

Sophia Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek. It may refer to: *Sophia (wisdom) *Sophia (Gnosticism) *Sophia (given name) Places *Niulakita or Sophia, an island of Tuvalu *Sophia, Georgetown, a ward of Georgetown, Guyana *Sophia, North Carolina, an unincorpor ...

, the Greek word for wisdom, and ''Antipolis'', the ancient (Greek) name of a nearby seaside town

. Many of the roads within the technology park have Greek names. There is a giant sculptured Greek urn as a centre-piece on one of the roundabouts. The park is also termed a "technopole".

History

Gérald Hanning was the consultant advisor to the DATAR for this industrial/scientific complex created 1970 to 1984. French Senator Pierre Laffitte conceived the idea of Sophia Antipolis, calling for decentralization and "rural branch of the capital". The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the park.

Agenda 2040

An agenda named "Sophia 2040" was created to "restore the former glory of the technology park's historic centre". Further novel investments e. g. into intelligent vehicle technology have been initiated.

Location

Much of the park falls within the commune of Valbonne, which lies northwest of

and southwest of

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

Residential community

Several neighborhoods within the park area exist, which make the area attractive to live: Garbejaire, Haut-Sartoux, Saint-Philippe and the Place Sophie Laffitte. The locations include typical public services such as a post office, shops, hairdressers, a primary school, sport complexes, hotels, church, children play areas, etc. The area is also surrounded by multiple golf courses and located north of the science park lies the large Regional Natural Park of the Préalpes d'Azur.

Public transport

Several bus routes (27 urban routes and 64 school bus routes) cover the vast area of the technology park. The main bus route (Ligne A, formerly known as Ligne 1), that was redesigned in 2020, connects the central bus station of the park (Gare Routière Valbonne - Sophia Antipolis) with

railway station and Juan les Pins, with bus stops at main universities such as Polytech Nice Sophia and SKEMA. Antibes railway station provides access to the Riviera coastal railway ( TER Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur) with eastbound trains to

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word ...

and

Ventimiglia Ventimiglia (; lij, label= Intemelio, Ventemiglia , lij, label=Genoese, Vintimiggia; french: Vintimille ; oc, label=Provençal, Ventemilha ) is a resort town in the province of Imperia, Liguria, northern Italy. It is located southwest of ...

, or westbound trains to

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label=Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is the ...

and

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

. The technology park also has special express lines directly connecting the park with neighbouring cities: * Ligne 230 (Nice - Sophia Antipolis) * Ligne 232 (St. Laurent du Var - Sophia Antipolis) * Ligne 530 (Grasse - Sophia Antipolis) * Ligne 630 (Cannes - Valbonne) * Envibus Ligne A (Antibes - Valbonne) The nearest international airport for the general public is the

Nice Côte d'Azur Airport Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport Nice Côte d'Azur) is an international airport located southwest of Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes ''départment'' of France. It is the third busiest airport in France and serves as a focu ...

. Passengers travelling through private jets and non-scheduled flights can use the Cannes – Mandelieu Airport as an alternative.

Academic and research institutions

* European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM), the

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an home of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) * European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) * EURECOM * INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis unit * Institut Interdisciplinaire d’Intelligence Artificielle
3iA
* Institut Sophia Agrobiotech - ( INRAE/ CNRS/ UCA) * Institut Universitaire de Technologie (IUT) Nice-Côte d'Azur - ( UCA) * Laboratoire d'Informatique, Signaux et Systèmes de Sophia Antipolis
I3S
- ( CNRS/ UCA) * Mines ParisTech, École Nationale Supérieure de Mines de Paris * Polytech Nice Sophia, polytechnic school of the University of Côte d'Azur, formerly known as University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis * Skema Business School, School of Knowledge Economy and Management

Companies

The technology park as of 2021 lists around 2,500 companies. The park also benefits from close proximity of other large corporations in the area, e. g. Thales Alenia Space (in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ci ...

), IBM ( La Gaude) and Schneider Electric ( Carros). Furthermore, the park is near the large city of

and its industries. The following list is a partial selection without claim to completeness or actuality. For an up-to-date listing and map of "park stakeholders" refer to the main website. *

3Roam 3Roam provides high-capacity microwave transmission equipments for wireless and packet Packet may refer to: * A small container or pouch ** Packet (container), a small single use container ** Cigarette packet ** Sugar packet * Network pack ...

* Accenture *

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airl ...

* ALTEN * Altran Praxis (software house) * Amadeus, a travel industry IT company * American Express Global Business Travel *

Arm Holdings Arm is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England. Its primary business is in the design of ARM processors (CPUs). It also designs other chips, provides software development tools under the DS-5, Real ...

* Ashland Inc. * Astrium GeoInformation Services * Atos * Avanade *

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

* Bosch * Cadence Design Systems *

Capgemini Capgemini SE is a multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and data processing company. The com ...

* CEVA France - Riviera Waves SAS * CODIX * Cisco *

Crossbeam Systems Crossbeam Systems is headquartered in Boxborough, Massachusetts and has offices in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Crossbeam Systems was acquired by Blue Coat Systems in December 2012 and the Crossbeam brand has been fully absorbed int ...

* CSR plc * Dailymotion * Dassault Systèmes * Dow * Electrosmart * Ethertronics * Fortinet
Funifier
* Galderma Laboratories *

Gemalto Gemalto was an international digital security company providing software applications, secure personal devices such as smart cards and tokens, and managed services. It was formed in June 2006 by the merger of two companies, Axalto and Gemplu ...

* Hewlett-Packard * HiPe Kids *

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

Sophia-Antipolis laboratory *

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smart ...

* IBM * Icera Semiconductor, now part of

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

* Infineon *

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

* Lionbridge * Luxottica * Maxim Integrated * Micromania Video Game Retailer *

MRL Technology MRL may refer to: * Magnetic Reference Laboratory, an American company that makes and sells Calibration Tapes * Mineral Resources Limited, Australian mining company * Official Monster Raving Loony Party, a UK political party * Montana Rail Link, a ...

* Nicox *

* NXP Semiconductors * Orange * Pixeet, 360 degree software and mobile hardware solutions, International Center for Advanced Communication *

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...

br>Software Labs
*

Rohm and Haas Rohm and Haas Company is a manufacturer of specialty chemicals for end use markets such as building and construction, electronic devices, packaging, household and personal care products. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the company is organized ...

SAP AG Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a sepa ...

SAP Labs Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separat ...

France * Scaleo chip *

Sigma Orionis SA Sigma (; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; grc-gre, σίγμα) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as ...

, the oldest spin-off company of Sophia Antipolis (founded in 1984 by researchers from Mines Paristech)
Slice Factory
*

ST Ericsson ST-Ericsson was a multinational manufacturer of wireless products and semiconductors, supplying to mobile device manufacturers. ST-Ericsson was a 50/50 joint venture of Ericsson and STMicroelectronics established on 3 February 2009 and dissolved 2 ...

STMicroelectronics STMicroelectronics N.V. commonly referred as ST or STMicro is a Dutch multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates near Geneva, Switzerland and listed on the French stock market. ST ...

– STNWireless JV. *

Symphony Communication Symphony is an instant messaging service designed for use by financial firms. It offers features such as encryption, group messaging, the ability to share rich content, and support for third-party plugins. Symphony is developed by Symphony Communi ...

* Tetra Engineering Europe *

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...

- SA site closed * The Next Level * Transas * Triadss Tech Solutions * Toyota ED2 - Toyota Europe Design Development studio * TrackInsight - An exchange-traded funds analysis platform * UDcast *

Valbonne Consulting Valbonne (; oc, Vauboa) is a commune near Nice in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Valbonne means "the good valley" in Provençal and translates to "Vaubona" in Occitan. The c ...

* Wall Street Systems * Wipro-NewLogic - SA site closed, a former VLSI specialist design house with HQ in Austria

References

External links

Official website

Team Côte d’Azur
- Main investment agency and body for the Riviera's ecosystem
Sophia Antipolis Urban Community (CASA)
- A property agency
Centre International de Valbonne (CIV)
- An international school {{Authority control Science parks in France Antibes High-technology business districts in France Buildings and structures in Alpes-Maritimes