Morelos: Extraordinary Environment for Innovation and Technological Development

The state of Morelos has exceptional assets that, together with measures adopted by its government, make it an ideal environment for innovation and technological development in Mexico.
Morelos is known as the “Land of Knowledge” because it is home to 40 research centers and 135 labs. There are also more than 2,000 researchers who live and work in the state –815 of them belong to the National Science and Technology Council’s (Conacyt) National Researchers System (SNI). In Morelos, more than 400 students graduate each year from science and engineering related Master programs and 90 from PhD programs.

The state’s government is aware of the value of these extraordinary assets and has adopted strategic measures to transform them into economic development opportunities. Its strategy consists of promoting innovation and technological development in companies by linking them with academic institutions and research centers. To that end, in 2007 Morelos created the Science and Technology Council of the State of Morelos (CCyTEM) and the Innovation and Technological Transfer Center of Morelos (CemiTT).

In the beginning of 2009, the state’s First Technology Park –one of the first ones in Mexico– was inaugurated. The project was led by the state’s government, together with the federal government and the Monterrey Technological Institute for Higher Studies (ITESM). The park oversees many innovation and technological development processes and offers companies established in Morelos several services, such as state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure, research and development spaces and a technology-based companies incubator.

This strategy is already yielding results. There are more than 30 technology-based companies operating and more than 15 in the incubation process in Morelos. For more than four decades, Morelos has been one of the preferred locations for companies in the life sciences sector. According to data provided by the Federal Ministry of Economy, from October 2006 to date, Morelos has received more than half of Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico’s pharmaceutical industry and has contributed 7% of the sector’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Morelos Science and Technology Park
The industry-academia cooperation strategy’s most ambitious project is the creation of a second Science and Technology Park, a space designed for the development and establishment of technology-based companies, which will offer specialized services for process and product innovation.

The Park will have a Technological Center – a feature that distinguishes this type of parks from industrial ones– with specialized human capital and labs. It will also have a Research Results Transfer Office, which will support companies in their global search for technological solutions and help academia to design a demand-based offer.

The Science and Technology Park is already being built South of Cuernavaca’s metropolitan area. It covers 86.4 acres adjacent to the Mexico City-Acapulco highway and the World Trade Center of the state of Morelos.

Because of the state’s prolific scientific and technological heritage, the institutions that the local government has established, the specialized and state-of-the-art infrastructure and other well known advantages –like location and a high standard of living–, Morelos is considered the ideal place to establish technology-based companies in Mexico.