Ville de la connaissance et terreau numérique: le cas de Montpellier, France.
Montpellier Metropolitan Area, located in County Languedoc-Roussillon, is in a context of high demographical growth. In the mid 60s, the town's selection as the County's Capital city determined the implantation of numerous public research centers in the Health and the Agronomy sectors in particular. At the same time, the implantation of an IBM factory, and the settlement of many IBM subcontractors added a specialization in the field of electronics, data processing and communication. Nowadays, Montpellier has a high Scientific and intellectual potential. The Region Languedoc-Roussillon comes second after île-de-France (Paris' county) in the number of innovative company's settling yearly. Some innovative companies are driven in their creation by Business Incubators under a Public supervision. The highest French city in terms of population size, Montpellier is number four (after Paris, Grenoble, and Toulouse) in terms of strategic employment concentration (within the high tertiary sector) which guarantees good conditions for the implantation of innovative companies (highly qualified workforce is available). This communication will introduce the main specialties of the Montpellier Metropolitan Area and highlight the development projects of numerical infrastructures (Pegase and R3LR. mainly) to the Agglomeration in relation with places of services activities and innovatives parks.