For generations, the Azores lived with the burden of distance. Geography shaped destiny. The ocean that gave the islands beauty and strategic importance also imposed limitations: fragmented markets, fragile connectivity, the emigration of talent, and an economy too often dependent on external decisions. Today, however, a different Atlantic narrative is slowly taking shape — one built not only on ports and airports, but on data, innovation, technology, and knowledge itself.

At the center of that transformation stands NONAGON – Parque de Ciência e Tecnologia de São Miguel, the first Science and Technology Park created in the Azores, increasingly positioning itself as one of the region’s principal engines for digital economy development and technological modernization.

More than a physical complex of offices and infrastructure, NONAGON presents itself as an attempt to redefine what insularity means in the twenty-first century.

“The creation of Science and Technology Parks in the Azores helped stimulate the digital economy and establish a knowledge-based economy,” the institution explained in an interview with Diário dos Açores. “These infrastructures help mitigate the costs of insularity by attracting multinational investment in Information and Communication Technologies and by retaining qualified talent in the region.”

In a territory historically marked by the outward migration of educated youth, the language of “retaining talent” carries enormous symbolic and economic weight. The park’s leadership sees technological infrastructure not merely as a business opportunity, but as a demographic and social strategy capable of helping combat the long-standing “brain drain” affecting the islands.

The expansion of NONAGON itself reflects that ambition.

For years, the growth of the park remained constrained by physical limitations. It was only under the current administration of the Vice-Presidência do Governo Regional dos Açores that the new NONAGON building was inaugurated, alongside the expansion of TERINOV on Terceira Island.

That expansion allowed more companies to establish operations in the region, strengthening the parks’ ability to attract investment while simultaneously creating an ecosystem where startups, technology firms, universities, and public entities can interact more directly.

Yet NONAGON insists that its role extends beyond simply renting office space.

“The NONAGON is not just a physical space,” the interview emphasizes. “It is a point of connection between companies, universities, and public entities.”

That idea of connection — between islands and world markets, between academic research and business creation, between local realities and international innovation — increasingly defines the broader strategy now unfolding in the Azores.

The park has also intensified partnerships with other regions and science parks, seeking to import knowledge, exchange best practices, and give international visibility to projects developed within the archipelago. According to the interview, the past year has seen growing demand, with more companies installing themselves at NONAGON and more projects being developed within its ecosystem.

The priorities for 2026 are clear: increase occupancy rates, attract new companies, and strengthen sectors considered strategic for the future of the Azorean economy.

Among the sectors identified as having the greatest long-term potential are the digital economy, marine technologies, aerospace industries, sustainability, and health innovation — areas increasingly aligned with the Azores’ RIS3 Smart Specialization Strategy and with broader European priorities regarding technological transition and environmental resilience.

But the park’s leadership is careful to stress that growth alone is insufficient.

“Growing in number is important,” the interview states, “but our principal focus is quality.”

The ambition is not simply to attract more companies, but to attract businesses capable of generating qualified employment, exporting services and technologies beyond the islands, and contributing to a more diversified and resilient economy less dependent on external volatility.

That distinction is fundamental in the Azorean context.

For decades, economic development in the islands often depended heavily upon sectors vulnerable to seasonality, subsidies, and external shocks. The emergence of technology-based ecosystems represents an attempt to create forms of economic activity less constrained by physical geography itself.

At the same time, the interview openly acknowledges that the connection between academia and the private sector remains underdeveloped compared to other regions.

Still, important steps are beginning to emerge.

Recently, NONAGON signed a collaboration agreement with InUAc – Incubadora de Empresas da Universidade dos Açores, seeking to strengthen the relationship between research and entrepreneurship while encouraging the transformation of academic knowledge into practical projects, startups, and spin-offs.

The park also highlighted efforts by the Direção Regional da Ciência, Desenvolvimento e Inovação to create funding mechanisms requiring collaboration between universities and companies — a policy increasingly viewed as essential for accelerating technological transfer and applied innovation within the region.

Yet perhaps the most revealing element of the conversation lies in how NONAGON envisions itself five years from now.

The goal, according to the interview, is not merely to become a successful technology park, but to evolve into a dynamic collaborative ecosystem where companies, ideas, institutions, and people “grow together,” helping shape a more diversified, modern, and opportunity-driven Azorean economy.

It is a vision deeply connected to a broader transformation now visible across the islands.

The Azores are increasingly attempting to reposition themselves not as peripheral territories dependent solely upon geography, but as Atlantic platforms for science, technology, sustainability, aerospace development, digital infrastructure, and ocean innovation.

In earlier centuries, the islands occupied strategic importance because ships crossed these waters. Today, cables, satellites, data systems, renewable energy networks, scientific research, and technological collaboration increasingly define that same Atlantic centrality.

For the Azores, the challenge is no longer merely surviving distance.

It is learning how to transform distance itself into strategic value.

Translated and adapted to a news story based on an interview by Rui Leite Melo for Diário dos Açores
Director: Paulo Viveiros