USP Supera Park: a cluster for innovation and technology
Inaugurated in March 26th, 2014, the USP Supera Parque is an environment for research, development, and innovation activities between the university, the government, and companies. In its almost ten years of existence, the USP Supera Park has been playing an active role in promoting startups, businesses, and opportunities for students. Learn more about USP Supera Park here.
Photo: Supera Parque
Located on the Ribeirão Preto Campus of USP, the Supera Park, which is a Portuguese word that stands for “to overcome”, is the first technology park made possible by an association of the University and the Paulista Tech Parks System. With an approximate area of 300 thousand square meters (m²), the Park is divided into five main areas: the Supera Company Incubator, the Supera Tech System, the Local Productive Arrangement (APL), the Software Industrial Cluster (PISO), and the Business Center.
The Supera Company Incubator has existed since June 2003 and has the objective of helping the creation of tech based companies. the Incubator acts with dozens of companies by granting infrastructure and residency, as well as offering general consulting services, capacitation of personnel, networks, and making it easier for these companies to participate in national and international events.
Apart from promoting scientific and technological development programs, the Supera Park aims to attract companies that research and invest in innovative products and processes, on the áras of the Health Industrial Complex (CIS), biotechnology, information technology, and bioenergy.
Although the Park offers its services to companies in all segments of the market, it is focused on health related initiatives, which is an institutional move related to the very nature of USP’s Ribeirão Preto campus, mostly destined to health-related courses and institutions. The presence of Supera Park, consequently, also emphasizes the protagonism of USP’s Ribeirão Preto Campus excellence and its role as a teaching, research, business, and health technology center.
Future plans
Photo: Supera Parque
As of now, the Supera Park will receive a new specialized center until 2026. The Health to Business Center is a project approved by the Finep, a financing organ related to the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, and has amassed a budget of R$ 19 million Brazilian reais. The main focus of the Center is to develop health technologies and startups.
The new building will have service spaces for the companies, such as a biotech multi user lab, with a biosecurity compound, as well as lab equipment and apparel. It will also have a TIC center for the capacitation of workers (with programming courses) and for software development and testing and research support, where high performance computers will have drug discovery systems (machine learning usage to help the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs).
The space will also have an infrastructure to support applied technologies, with a lab maker (prototypes) and robotics. The building will also have a cooperative space, with an open coworking lab made up of lab benches. There will also be private rooms for reunions with researchers and a new office for FioCruz and spaces for events and sociability, with an auditorium, lounges and exhibition halls.
Currently, the Supera Park has a total of 79 established companies, 57 of them are part of the Supera Tech Based Companies Incubator and 22 are enterprises at the Business Center. The tech park is in expansion with the urbanization of land for the establishment of companies and the implementation of the Container Park, a new business complex.