Sophia Antipolis is a 2,400 hectare science park in southeast France, 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 "technopole" houses primarily companies in the fields of computing,
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."
Naming
Sophia Antipolis is named after Sophie Glikman-Toumarkine, the wife of French Senator Pierre Laffitte, founder of the park, and incidentally, Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom, and
Antipolis, the ancient (Greek) name of a nearby seaside town
Antibes. 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".
In 2016, the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy was relocated from Montreuil to Sophia Antipolis.
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
The technology park lies over an area that stretches into 5 municipalities or communes, much of it falling within the commune of
Valbonne, which lies northwest of
Antibes and southwest of
Nice,
France.
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
Antibes 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
Nice,
Monaco and
Ventimiglia, or westbound trains to
Toulon and
Marseille.
The technology park also has special express lines directly connecting the park with neighbouring cities:
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Ligne 230 (Nice - Sophia Antipolis)
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Ligne 232 (St. Laurent du Var - Sophia Antipolis)
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Ligne 530 (Grasse - Sophia Antipolis)
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Ligne 630 (Cannes - Valbonne)
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Envibus Ligne A (Antibes - Valbonne)
The nearest international airport for the general public is the Nice Côte d'Azur Airport. Passengers travelling through private jets and non-scheduled flights can use the Cannes – Mandelieu Airport as an alternative.
Academic and research institutions
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ERCIM (ERCIM), the home of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
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European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
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EURECOM
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INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis unit
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Institut Interdisciplinaire d’Intelligence Artificielle - 3iA
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Institut Sophia Agrobiotech - (INRAE/CNRS/UCA)
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Institut Universitaire de Technologie (IUT) Nice-Côte d'Azur - (UCA)
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Laboratoire d'Informatique, Signaux et Systèmes de Sophia Antipolis ( I3S) - (CNRS/UCA)
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Mines ParisTech, École Nationale Supérieure de Mines de Paris
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Polytech Nice Sophia, polytechnic school of the University of Côte d'Azur, formerly known as University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis
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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),
IBM (
La Gaude) and Schneider Electric (
Carros). Furthermore, the park is near the large city of
Nice 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.
External links
