Pretoria - Construction of the R300 million first phase of the Innovation Hub, the science and technology park on a part of the University of Pretoria's experimental farm, is scheduled to start in July.

Neville Comins, the chief executive of the Innovation Hub Management Company, said yesterday that the company would take transfer of the land "within weeks".

The farm on which it is located is adjacent to the N1 and N4 highways.

Current planning specified five development phases for the park, involving a total investment of R1.4 billion.

"Obviously a lot of that is private sector investment and owner-builder developments, with companies building research and technology centres on site," he said.

The Innovation Hub is a joint venture between Blue IQ, the development and investment arm of Gauteng's finance and economic affairs department, and the Southern Education Research Alliance, a strategic alliance between the CSIR and the University of Pretoria.

The hub is designed to support new technological research and businesses and has been operating as a pilot since its launch two years ago.

Comins said Gauteng was investing R258 million in the project, the bulk of which would go into the infrastructure and the construction of an 8 000m2 multi-tenanted building and a 4 500m2 innovation centre in the first phase.

The first phase would be about a quarter of the approved capacity of 121 000m2 of gross floor area on the 60ha site.

Potential clients included international hi-tech companies starting South African development operations, he said. Occupancy of the Innovation Hub was expected in the third quarter of next year.

"This will place the country on a new road of accelerated knowledge creation and commercialisation, and will spearhead the country's advance into the hub of global technology and world markets."