Sophia Antipolis is a 2,400 hectare technology 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 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.

The "technopole" houses primarily companies in the fields of computing, electronics, telecommunication, pharmacology and biotechnology. 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." The foundation's 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, the wife of French Senator Pierre Laffitte, founder of the park, and, 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.

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.

Location The technology park lies over an area that stretches into 5 municipalities or communes, much of it falling within the commune of Valbonne.

Residential community Several neighborhoods within the park area exist: 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: 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. 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 European home of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) EURECOM Inria Centre at Université Côte d'Azur Institut Interdisciplinaire d’Intelligence Artificielle 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 Université Côte d'Azur

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.

Accenture Air France Airbus Defence & Space ALTEN Altran Praxis (software house) Amadeus, a travel industry IT company American Express Global Business Travel Arm Holdings Ashland Inc. Atos Avanade Broadcom Bosch Cadence Design Systems Capgemini CEVA France - Riviera Waves SAS CODIX Cisco Crossbeam Systems CSR plc Dailymotion Dassault Systèmes Dow Electrosmart Ethertronics Fortinet Funifier Galderma Laboratories Gemalto Hewlett-Packard HiPe Kids Hitachi Sophia-Antipolis laboratory Honeywell Huawei IBM Icera Semiconductor, now part of Nvidia Infineon Intel Lionbridge Luxottica Maxim Integrated Micromania Video Game Retailer MRL Technology Nicox NXP Semiconductors Orange Pixeet, 360 degree software and mobile hardware solutions, International Center for Advanced Communication Renault Rohm and Haas SAP AG, SAP Labs France Scaleo chip Sequans Communications Sigma Orionis SA, the oldest spin-off company of Sophia Antipolis (founded in 1984 by researchers from Mines Paristech) Slice Factory SMG Swiss Marketplace Group ST Ericsson STMicroelectronics – STNWireless JV. Symphony Communication Tetra Engineering Europe, subsidiary of Tetra Engineering Group, engineering consultancy specializing in HRSGs and power plant steam cycles Texas Instruments - 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 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