Founded in the thirteenth century, the University of Cambridge is one of the world's oldest universities. Over the years it has established an international reputation for academic excellence and innovation. It is fitting, then, that the modernist structures that make up Cambridge Science Park were planned within the Tudor spires of Trinity College.

Cambridge Science Park can trace its origins back to the Labour Party's winning election campaign of 1964, during which party leader Harold Wilson referred to “the white heat of technology”. This phrase subsequently came to characterize Wilson's time as prime minister, as he urged universities to forge stronger links with industry in order to receive a return on the government's investment in basic research.

In Cambridge, a university committee elected at that time to heed this advice, and Trinity College — founded by Henry VIII in 1546 — suggested that farmland in its possession would make an ideal home for high-tech companies.

But success for this enterprise was slow in coming. Although it is now widely viewed in Europe as a model for science parks, Trinity's plot of land was slow to attract tenants when it opened in 1973. Eventually, early occupants of the park, such as Cambridge Consultants, spawned numerous smaller companies. In the process, the park's evolution reflected the major technological trends of the time. It started as a home for instrumentation companies, became dominated by information technology and telecommunications companies, and is now more biotech-orientated.

It is possible that both university and science park have endured for so long because they have ensured that they have the capacity to change — a quality that scientists who wish to remain relevant in an ever-shifting job market would do well to cultivate.