According to a survey by the Navarra Health Cluster (NHC) to assess the need for space for the establishment and growth of businesses in the health sector, 81% of the companies surveyed would move all or part of their activity if there was a technology park or common space.
The growth of the health sector in Navarre will require more than 9,000 m2 of new infrastructure in the coming years. In addition, 81% of the entities in the sector would be willing to move all or part of their company to a building or a common space such as a technology park, hub or health and biosciences innovation pole in order to promote the cohesion of the sector. These are the main conclusions of an internal survey conducted by the Navarra Health Cluster, a network of companies and institutions in the healthcare sector in Navarre, among its 45 associates.
The survey also illustrates a clear short-term need: out of the overall respondents, the majority would need new space in less than two years. According to the projections, 3,000 to 4,500 square meters should be available in that timeframe to meet the infrastructure needs of the agents interviewed, in order to house offices, laboratories, production units and R&D units.
“In Navarre, we have an innovative sector that needs space for its organized expansion, such as a technology park specialized in Health and Biosciences. This need is a major challenge and a priority that we have identified during the work of the cluster’s infrastructure committee to improve the business development ecosystem in Navarra. Being able to concentrate and specialize a space for the creation and development of companies in the health sector is necessary to boost competitiveness, as well as to encourage investment and attract headquarters or companies from outside Navarre that see in the region a fertile ground for growth. This investment will contribute to greater synergy among the actors and, in the long term, will position the region as a reference in the field of biosanitary and biosciences at a global level with the constitution of a technological pole of reference,” says Laura Corcuera, managing director of Navarra Health Cluster. “An innovative industrial space dedicated to health and biosciences, close to knowledge centers, universities, the Digital Innovation Pole and the hospital area, concentrating innovation and business development, would replicate successful models of specialization from other regions in Europe.”
In its role as a catalyst for the biosanitary sector, Navarra Health Cluster aims to dynamize the entire value chain in a transversal way, which implies facilitating collaboration between partners. A need that could be met in part thanks to the creation of a common facility that also responds to a need for cohesion and exchange on the part of the partners surveyed, who value positively the provision of shared spaces, such as a laboratory, within the technology park itself, which they demand.
