Formation Process and Geography of Science–Industry Partnerships: The Case of the University of Poitiers

This paper tries to elicit new explanations into the geography of collaborations between science and industry by focusing on how they are initially set up. Two determining factors could influence this: constraints linked to the search for complementary resources and possibilities to connect with partners. An empirical study on collaborations established by several laboratories of the University of Poitiers with companies confirms this hypothesis. Searching for specific resources means fewer potential partners are available and explains the small number of local collaborations and the high number of partnerships with certain regions. However, these constraints alone do not suffice to determine the spatial scale of such collaborations. Analysing how connections are established particularly reveals that partners generally prefer to renew collaborations rather than initiate new ones. This leads to the existing geography of partnerships being reinforced.