Question of the Month: What services are most critical to innovation space competitiveness?

The services provided by Areas of Innovation (AOIs), Innovation Districts (IDs) and Science and Technology Parks (STPs) are widely recognised as one of the three main factors influencing competitiveness. But which one matters the most? 

This May, we asked IASP members to identify three key services that they consider most critical to the success of their innovation spaces.  The results provide insight into the areas where innovation ecosystems are currently focusing their efforts and resources. 

Incubation and acceleration programmes emerged as the leading priority, with the highest support across respondents (60%). This reflects a broad recognition of structured support for early-stage and scaling companies as a cornerstone of innovation space success.  

In second place, business development support (53.3%), and in a close third place, support for partnerships and strategic alliances (40%),While partnership and strategic alliances underscore the importance of ecosystem orchestration, business development services highlights the critical role that hands-on guidance plays in helping companies thrive.  

Investment and financing access (40%), alongside networking and community building (33.3%), also ranked highly. These results suggest that innovation spaces are succeeding not just by providing physical infrastructure, but as environments where capital, talent and relationships connect naturally across sectoral and geographic boundaries. 

Overall, these results reinforce the idea that competitive innovation spaces are those that combine hands-on entrepreneurship support with strong ecosystem-building capabilities. Successful innovation is not about individual services in isolation, but about the combination of multiple services that create the conditions for companies to innovate, connect, and grow.