Sophia Antipolis


Sophia Antipolis is probably the most international spot in the whole of France – 30 000 people from more than 60 countries gathered on some 20 square kilometers, most of them researchers and employees in R&D intensive companies. The University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNSA) has a campus in Sophia and there are inumerable high profile educations and institutes in the park, such as Theseus, CERAM and Eurecom.

Sophia Antipolis is something of a hub of the "Telecom Valley", which stretches from Milano in the east to Valencia in the south-west. As the name implies, IT and telecom in general are the basis of the activities in Telecom Valley, and even more so in Sophia Antipolis. Apart from IT and telecom there are several companies doing research in medicine in Sophia Antipolis.

Most companies establishing here choose to place their Research and Development departments in Sophia. One of the obvious reasons is the possibility to collaborate with other companies. One fourth of the activities are being run by international companies - most of them American such as HP, IBM, Texas Instruments, Infineon Technologies, Cisco, Nortel Networks and Accenture. Not to mention all the young IT companies.

Sophia also hosts the European telecom standardization organization, ETSI which plays an important role even for setting the global telecommunication standards. You find both formal and informal networks of professionals in Sophia, something that must be considered very important both for collaborators and competitors. Someone has compared the activities in Sophia with a Trojan horse; through Sophia Antipolis you get a foothold in the often so secluded French market.

Bienvenue à Sophia

Read more:

Sophia Where?
Sophia Why?
Sophia What?
Young Views about Sophia


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