Bill Dean is director of the Piedmont Triad Research Park.

JASON VARNEY | VARNEYPHOTO.COM

The attraction of employment, higher income, capital investment, and continued economic growth to raise the standards of living drive communities to build a competitive advantage. Communities around the world are building, or rebuilding, to the new-knowledge economy with various tag-line creations: innovation communities, smart communities, entrepreneurial communities, and so on. These communities recognize the economic shift of business: Local economies rely on new development of competitive products for a global market that places great value on intellectual capital. Much of today's business focuses on smaller, fast-growth companies, built on new technology from intellectual expertise around the world.

Research communities know that today's high-growth industries value innovation, creativity, speed, and flexibility. Preparing for this important catalyst of change leads communities to examine and evaluate economic advantages and disadvantages along with shaping a pathway to get things done. Many communities are creating and developing incubators and research parks to create microeconomies that will be a source for new-technology clusters. Moreover, partnerships, collaborations, and alliances are necessary to build the environment, culture, and appropriate infrastructure to take new ideas and innovation to the global marketplace. Public, private, and academic partnerships create a value chain that will produce world-class research, capital, education, training, communication, entrepreneurial culture, and visionary leadership to build upon a technology economy.

Winston-Salem, the fourth largest city in North Carolina, is one such community. With the decline of traditional manufacturing sectors in textiles, tobacco, and furniture, community leadership took collaborative action to create an environment that could nurture and grow an innovation economy. Winston-Salem's leadership examined and evaluated the economic advantages and disadvantages of a technology economy to begin shaping its future around strong academic resources surrounded by established healthcare, financial, and legal businesses. Public, private, and academic partnerships were formed to initiate a research park, incubator, entrepreneurial development, angel-venture capital, workforce training, improved K-12 education, and economic-development opportunities. The value proposition is to build on job creation, new-wealth accumulation, an expanded tax base, proactive-business climate, quality education, new image, and improved quality of life for all citizens.

As one of the leading academic and research institutions in America, Wake Forest University and Wake Forest University Health Sciences (WFUHS) made an early commitment to economic development. The university's leadership ability to turn scientific ideas into business enterprises provided a unique opportunity for the community. Under the leadership of Dr. Richard H. Dean, president and chief executive officer of WFUHS, the expansion of the Piedmont Triad Research Park (PTRP) represented a major commitment to transform the economy from one driven by manufacturing to one led by technology.

This expansion in downtown Winston-Salem offers university research programs and faculty-student linkages with industry in multitenant buildings. The university's technology-commercialization process has also attracted spinoff enterprises and startups. The university's Babcock Demon Incubator acts as a catalyst where community business leaders and students can network and consult with entrepreneurs to start and grow companies. The role of university economic development in Winston-Salem is without question influencing the future economic success of the community through research, faculty and students, entrepreneurs, incubation, technology commercialization, and the expansion of the research park.

The PTRP advances innovation and technology through its people, programs, and the facilities of WFUHS, Winston-Salem State University, Salem College, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Forsyth Technical Community College. This urban-based research park is master planned for more than 200 acres of land in three districts for university research, corporate locations, and commercial, retail, and residential development. Community financial support of the research park, led by WFUHS, has come from the Winston-Salem Alliance, city and county, various businesses, and a major corporate gift from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company of historical tobacco manufacturing land and buildings. Public and private contributions also demonstrated the value of partnerships for research-park development.

Today, PTRP consists of six buildings providing close to 550,000 square feet of wet-lab, office, meeting, and residential space. Its high-tech multi-tenant population has grown to 34 companies and university departments exceeding more than 800 employees in the areas of life sciences, information technology, and business services with total annual payrolls in excess of $50 million. The research park's newest building, which opened in May 2006, houses the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Lipids Sciences Research Program. Both entities run research projects named as top breakthroughs in 2007 by national science magazines in addition to worldwide notoriety. Plans are underway for additional research buildings to foster the growth of a myriad of technologies. The expansion plans will bring additional economic benefits to the community through planning, design and construction jobs, construction purchases, retail spending, and tax revenue.

A community, as a society, benefits from university, industry, and public-sector partnerships to build a technology economy. New initiatives are created, and old ones are improved to create new employment opportunities. For example, Winston-Salem has focused on improving education in the public schools with the Atkins Technology High School based on curricula for life science, health care, and engineering. Moreover, local industry and universities support hands-on biotech learning camps for students, such as Laboratories for Learning and the SciTech Summer Technology Institute. A community-owned fiber-optic network, known as WinstonNet, connects educational institutions, public libraries, and government offices, and it supports computer-lab centers for learning and training as an outreach to the entire community. Continuing adult education and workforce-training programs have also been implemented around biotechnology, nanotechnology, and design. Knowledge exchanges through seminars, conferences, and roundtables, and networking events take place frequently throughout the community. Overall, the entire research community grows from a solid foundation in education.

If there was an instruction manual for building research communities, it would center on smart people doing smart things. Communities must work smarter than the competition and strategically deploy all resources to maximize return on their future. People make up a community's greatest commodity. The relationships that these people have with one another are the true measure of success.