Montpellier - France

The Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon Technopole is a cluster of five "centres" or "poles" of development:

• Data processing, robotics computerised finance and artificial intelligence centre. Development commenced in 1963 with the arrival of IBO;
• Media centre. Considered to be Europe's 'global village';
• Biomedical and pharmaceutical centre. Montpellier was home to the first medical facility in the Western world in the 12th Century. The Euromedicine conference is held annually and attracts more than 15,000 doctors and researchers;
• Agronomy and agricultural processing industry development centre. This centre has many Institutes of Research with over 1800 researchers in agro-industrial and agricultural processing; and
• Tourism centre. Montpellier has major conference facilities and other tourism infrastructure.

Five hours from Paris by TGV, Montpellier has over 52,000 students in three universities and six major colleges.