(

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-knowledg ...

), 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 France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, 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 that ...

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 biochemica ...

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 ...

. Several institutions of higher learning are also located here, along with the European headquarters of W3C,

ETSI The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization in the field of information and communications. ETSI supports the development and testing of global technical standard ...

European Society of Cardiology The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is an independent non-profit, non-governmental professional association that works to advance the prevention, diagnosis and management of diseases of the heart and blood vessels, and improve scientific u ...

, 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, the wife of French Senator

Pierre Laffitte Pierre Laffitte (21 February 1823 – 4 January 1903) was a French positivist philosopher. Laffitte was born at Béguey, Gironde. Residing at Paris as a teacher of mathematics, he became a disciple of Auguste Comte, who appointed him his lite ...

, founder of the park, and incidentally, Sophia, 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

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 ...

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 In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

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 Juan-les-Pins (; oc, Joan dei Pins) is a town in the commune of Antibes in the Alpes-Maritimes department in Southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera, it is situated between Nice and Cannes, to the southwest of Nice Côte d'Azur Airp ...

, with bus stops at main universities such as

Polytech Nice Sophia Polytech Nice Sophia is a French engineering university based in the middle of the Sophia Antipolis (wisdom), gr, (Ἀντίπολις, antipolis) ("opposite city" from its position on the opposite side of the Var estuary from Nice, also forme ...

and

SKEMA SKEMA Business School (School of Knowledge Economy and Management) is a French business school, devoted to higher education and research. It has the legal status of a non-profit association under the French "1901 law". It was founded in 2009 as a ...

. Antibes railway station provides access to the Riviera coastal railway (

TER Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur Ter or TER may refer to: Places * River Ter, in Essex, England * Ter (river), in Catalonia * Ter (department), a region in France * Torre (river), (Slovene: ''Ter''), a river in Italy * Ter, Ljubno, a settlement in the Municipality of Ljubno ob ...

) with eastbound trains to

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

and Ventimiglia, 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 th ...

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 Fra ...

. 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 fo ...

. 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 Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an home of the

World Wide Web Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working ...

(W3C) * European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) * EURECOM * INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis unit * Institut Interdisciplinaire d’Intelligence Artificielle
3iA
* Institut Sophia Agrobiotech - ( INRAE/

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

UCA The fiddler crab or calling crab may be any of more than one hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae, well known for their sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than the minor claw, while ...

) *

Institut Universitaire de Technologie The University Institutes of Technology or IUT (french: Instituts Universitaires de Technologie) are parts of the university system in France. The IUT were created in 1966. There are 108 IUTs which are attached to 80 universities including the o ...

(IUT) Nice-Côte d'Azur - (

) * Laboratoire d'Informatique, Signaux et Systèmes de Sophia Antipolis
I3S
- (

) *

Mines ParisTech Mines Paris - PSL, officially École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris (until May 2022 Mines ParisTech, also known as École des mines de Paris, ENSMP, Mines de Paris, les Mines, or Paris School of Mines), is a French grande école and a ...

, École Nationale Supérieure de Mines de Paris *

, polytechnic school of the

University of Côte d'Azur A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

, formerly known as

University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

* 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 Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufactur ...

(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 ...

), IBM (

La Gaude La Gaude (; oc, La Gauda) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. History To the south of the village, a restored Roman stele is close to the Aurelian Way, the Roman road that passed near the present cultural ...

) 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 *

Accenture Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accentu ...

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 a ...

* ALTEN *

Altran Praxis Altran UK (formerly known as Altran Praxis, Praxis High Integrity Systems, Praxis Critical Systems, Altran Xype, Xype and Altran Technologies) is a division of parent company Altran. Altran Praxis was a British software house that specialised in c ...

(software house) * Amadeus, a travel industry IT company *

American Express Global Business Travel American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) is a multinational travel and meetings program management company headquartered in New York City. GBT has 13,500 employees in more than 140 countries. Paul Abbott has been the CEO of GBT since October ...

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, RealView ...

Ashland Inc. Ashland Global Specialty Chemicals Inc. is an American chemical company which operates in more than 100 countries. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, the company traces its roots back to the city of Ashland, Kentucky, where it was headquarter ...

Astrium Astrium was an aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) that provided civil and military space systems and services from 2006 to 2013. In 2012, Astrium had a turnover of €5.8 billion and 1 ...

GeoInformation Services * Atos * Avanade * Broadcom * Bosch *

Cadence Design Systems Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (stylized as cādence), headquartered in San Jose, California, is an American multinational computational software company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc. The company produces software, ...

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

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

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 into ...

CSR plc CSR plc (formerly Cambridge Silicon Radio) was a multinational fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Its main products were connectivity, audio, imaging and location chips. CSR was listed on the London Stoc ...

Dailymotion Dailymotion is a French video-sharing technology platform owned by Vivendi. North American launch partners included Vice Media, Bloomberg and Hearst Digital Media. It is among the earliest known platforms to support HD (720p) resolution vid ...

* Dassault Systèmes * Dow *

Electrosmart Electrosmart is an Android application which measures the radio-frequency electromagnetic waves emitting from various sources like mobile phones (cellular networks i.e., 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G), WiFi access points, Bluetooth devices, etc. The app ...

* 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 The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

* HiPe Kids *

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later DKB Group and Fuyo G ...

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 sma ...

* 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. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

Lionbridge Lionbridge Technologies, Inc is an American company that provides translation and localization services. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company has operations in 26 countries. History Lionbridge was founded in 1996. In 2005, they acquired ...

* Luxottica * Maxim Integrated * Micromania Video Game Retailer * MRL Technology * Nicox *

NXP Semiconductors NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXP) is a Dutch semiconductor designer and manufacturer with headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The company employs approximately 31,000 people in more than 30 countries. NXP reported revenue of $11.06 billion in 2 ...

* 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 manufactured ...

br>Software Labs
* Rohm and Haas * SAP AG,

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

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 Motor Europe (TME) is a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation responsible for company operations in Europe and Western Asia (Turkey, Russia, Israel, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus). Its operations include research and development, manuf ...

- Toyota Europe Design Development studio * TrackInsight - An exchange-traded funds analysis platform *

UDcast UDcast was a company that provided products for Internet Protocol (IP) over broadcast media. It developed technology for IP networks over satellite and servers to provide television on mobile networks. History UDcast was involved in internationa ...

* Valbonne Consulting *

Wall Street Systems A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including: * Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the super ...

Wipro Wipro Limited (formerly, Western India Palm Refined Oils Limited) is an Indian multinational corporation that provides information technology, consulting and business process services. Thierry Delaporte is serving as CEO and managing direct ...

-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