Arizona Tribune - Pegasus Park Announced as Host of AURP 2026 International Conference

The 2026 AURP International Conference will convene research park leaders, innovation district and tech hub executives, industry partners plus higher education partners from across the U.S. and abroad. The event will spotlight North Texas' fast-growing innovation corridor and Pegasus Park's role as a catalyst for collaboration between academia and industry.

"Texas is a powerhouse of innovation and entrepreneurship, and Pegasus Park exemplifies the partnerships that make this region thrive," said Allison Madden, MBA, President of AURP, and Chief Operating Officer and Corporate Secretary of the University of South Florida Research Foundation. "We're thrilled to bring our international community to Dallas, where higher education, healthcare, and industry are advancing discovery and economic impact together."

"Texas is home to a thriving innovation corridor with synergies in every major city, and this conference will highlight how collaboration among our universities and industry partners drives solutions that benefit the world," said David Snow, PhD, CLP, Executive Director of Pegasus Park. "Pegasus Park's mission is to accelerate innovation, commercialization, economic and social impact by operating a purpose-built ecosystem where companies, institutions, capital, and talent converge to solve real-world challenges in life sciences, healthcare, and technology," Snow added. "Hosting AURP's 2026 International Conference allows us to showcase the extraordinary momentum building across North Texas and the collaborative spirit that defines this campus."

Developed by J. Small Investments, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, and Montgomery Street Partners, Pegasus Park spans 26 acres between the Dallas Design District and the Southwestern Medical District. The campus serves as home to a dynamic ecosystem of life sciences companies, social impact organizations, and research-driven enterprises. Its location in North Texas offers unparalleled opportunities for connectivity across the state's academic, medical, and technology sectors.

Celebrating • 5 Years of Pegasus Park • 40 Years of AURP • 250 Years of the United States:

The 2026 conference will unite three landmark anniversaries under the shared theme "Innovation Rising: Honoring Our Legacy, Shaping America's Next Frontier." Each milestone reflects the nation's evolving innovation story-from the founding of U.S. scientific enterprise to the rise of modern research parks and today's next-generation innovation districts.

AURP's 40-year legacy marks the evolution of university research parks from niche developments into global engines for technology commercialization, biomanufacturing, entrepreneurship, and community-building. The United States' 250th anniversary provides powerful national context: research parks have played a critical role in America's innovation competitiveness, just as early scientific institutions and land-grant universities shaped the nation's first centuries. Pegasus Park's 5th anniversary highlights the emergence of a new class of purpose-built innovation ecosystems-mission-driven, equity-centered, and capable of scaling translational science at unprecedented speed.

These Communities of Innovation are the central players in shaping America's next innovation frontier. Today they must accelerate industry-university partnerships; build inclusive and diverse innovation pipelines; support bio, AI, quantum, and clean-tech infrastructure; foster regional cluster development in emerging technologies; and mobilize talent and capital to enhance national competitiveness.

This theme reflects the sector's transformation-from research parks as physical campuses to science parks or innovation districts as strategic innovation networks driving economic growth, security, and societal well-being.

The conference will feature keynotes from national and international innovation leaders, tours of Pegasus Park and surrounding North Texas innovation hubs, and sessions on research commercialization, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and regional development.

Details on conference programming, sponsorship opportunities, and registration are available at https://aurp.org/education/international/.

About AURP: Building Communities of Innovation

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) is a global nonprofit network that connects leaders of university-driven innovation ecosystems, including research parks, innovation districts, technology hubs, and research institutions, to advance and scale regional innovation. As a premier learning and leadership consortium, AURP facilitates real-time peer exchange, best-practice sharing, strategic partnerships, and coordinated policy initiatives that strengthen innovation communities worldwide. By convening stakeholders across academia, industry, government, and entrepreneurship, AURP helps transform successful models into replicable strategies, accelerating technology commercialization, economic growth, workforce development, and community impact. Discover more, https://aurp.org/.

About Pegasus Park

Pegasus Park is a 26-acre innovation hub consisting of more than 885,000 square feet of offices, labs, and amenities across multiple buildings. The development includes an 18-story office tower, a unique setting in which higher ed institutions, investors, accelerators, companies, social innovation organizations, and ARPA-H's Customer Experience Hub are able to co-locate and collaborate daily. As the epicenter of North Texas' rapidly expanding biotech sector, the hub is anchored by BioLabs Pegasus Park, a 37,000 square foot lab and incubator facility that houses more than 20 biotech startups. From shared lab equipment to mentorship opportunities and proximity to entrepreneurial stakeholders, BioLabs Pegasus Park supplies startups with everything they need to launch into high-growth companies. With its newest 135,000 square foot lab development Bridge Labs, Pegasus Park offers the institutional quality R&D space and resources needed for companies at every stage to scale, while benefiting from Texas' low cost of doing business and strong talent pipeline. Strategically located in the heart of the rapidly expanding Innovation District, between the Dallas Design Center and the Southwestern Medical District in Dallas, Pegasus Park is a premier hub of innovation.

Media Contacts:

Vickie Palmer
Association of University Research Parks (AURP)
[email protected]
https://aurp.org/

Sydney Street
Culver Public Relations
[email protected]
https://pegasuspark.com/

Annie Chu
Culver Public Relations
[email protected]
https://pegasuspark.com/

SOURCE: Association of University Research Parks

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

M.White--AT