Science cities

Planning scientific campuses is a major issue for all metropolises seeking to attract and hold on their territory innovative and creative activities based on interdisciplinary exchanges. In a world pulled by the “knowledge economy”, it is generally assumed that these places play a critical role in the development of high-tech firm clusters, which are the vectors for the creation of economic value and highly qualified jobs. Yet, this is not always the case, as the mild successes in terms of start-up and R&D job creation of the Berlin-Adlershof or Paris-Saclay projects seem to indicate.

Numerous projects and ongoing scientific research campuses exist abroad

In North American, European and Japanese metropolises, already well-endowed in this realm, they more often deal with extension or modernization schemes than with creation per se, except perhaps for the accommodation of R&D centers of large companies or technology SMEs, which is increasingly undertaken in new research parks planned and managed by private developers, often in close partnership with universities. Newly industrialized countries of Asia are catching up very quickly thanks to very proactive state policies and large-scale development projects, yet their metropolitan governance is not at all comparable to the French and European contexts.

The “Science Cities” study: Science Campuses and Clusters in 21st Century Metropolises

L'Institut Paris Region published several works on related topics among which Clusters mondiaux (global clusters) in 2008, “Large-scale Urban Development Projects in Europe” (issue no. 146 of Les Cahiers), in 2007 and a special issue no. 143 of Les Cahiers on the universities in the Paris region, in 2005. But so far, we have not looked that closely at the relationships between the vibrancy of academic/research campuses and the dynamism of cluster ecosystems. Since 2010, L'Institut Paris Region has conducted international comparative studies into “Science Cities”. They aim at analyzing the urban design of academic campuses or science parks and “mapping” innovation's ecosystems of six metropolises across the world, in order to gather best practices from Europe, South-East Asia and North America. These practical foreign case studies are highly instructive and challenge received wisdom on the theory of clusters and the planning of campuses.  In 2009, we studied two cases of "pocket-size" yet highly dynamic metropolises in Europe: Helsinki and Zurich. And in 2010, we looked into much larger metropolises. “Mission Bay” and “Portland” (issues no. 655 and 653 of the Note rapide) are the last two case studies conducted in the United States, which is still a reference in terms of synergies among universities, research and industry.

• Mission Bay (San Francisco). Mission Bay is the name of a major economic and urban project in downtown San Francisco. It combines the urban regeneration of extensive rail/port wasteland and the development of a biotech and digital cluster around the new campus of the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF).
• Portland (State of Oregon, US). Portland cultivates its difference in a wide variety of fields such as sustainable urban planning, sports industries and the outdoors. Its universities make an active contribution in this respect through their research and their real estate practices in synergy with metropolitan public transport projects. Nothing spectacular, but all achieved with exemplary intelligence and pragmatism.