Indeed, some countries founded entire cities such as the United States' Oak Ridge, Japan's Tsukuba Academic City, and the Soviet Union's Akademgorodok to support scientific research.
"The demand for skilled workers has never been higher, and we have a role to play in facilitating a more coordinated approach between academia and the industry," Ayoub Kazim, managing director of Dubai International Academic City, said in an interview.
The Edinburgh-based Heriot-Watt university, for example, the first to open a campus in the Dubai International Academic City, in 2005, offers masters programs in petroleum engineering, construction project management, energy and information technology.
More than 383,000 jobs were supported by travel and tourism last year, a number that is expected to grow a further 2.6 percent this year, according to the report from Deloitte and Dubai International Academic City.
A study conducted by the consulting firm Deloitte and by Dubai International Academic City, a free zone dedicated to higher education that offers 400 internationally recognized degrees from different universities, found that there are a number of skill gaps within the tourism and hospitality sector that make it difficult for employers to find eligible candidates.
The story looked even better at the top end: Britain took 34 of the top 200 places, but it is London that has reigned supreme, having been confirmed as the world's leading academic city – four of the capital's universities have made it into the top 30 for the first time.
MSU Dubai was the first American university with a presence in Dubai International Academic City, with classes beginning in August 2008.
It is an academic city with 175 000 students and 22 institutions of high education.
Stroke team collaboration was established at the University Hospital of Padua, a large academic city hospital with more than 100 000 consultations per year in the ED.
There is a pattern in this, reflected across the nation, say planners, economists and academics: cities are taking the lead.
Nearly three months on, the academics, city officials and company executives who built and are monitoring the Electric Avenue project, consisting of a one-way street with six chargers and parking exclusively for electric vehicles, have started to tally the many challenges to promoting electric transportation.
