Toulouse

Fourth largest city in France, knowledgeable and vibrant, Toulouse cultivates its creativity and dynamism. Nested in a privileged geographical location, close to the Mediterranean Sea yet not far from the Atlantic Ocean, visitors fall prey to the colorful charms of the well-known "pink city" and its Latin personality.

Toulouse is the leading French metropolis for economic growth, job creation and R&D investment. Innovation and research are the DNA of the city and the territory is known worldwide for its aeronautics and space industry, its universities and its research laboratories that are boosting innovation in fields such as health, economics, biotechnology, nanotechnology and robotics (download information here)

With more than 1,3M inhabitants, Toulouse is expanding demographically, ranking first among the southern European cities, with a yearly increase of 10,000 inhabitants for the past 10 years.  As the third French student city in numbers (120,000 higher education students) and recently rated “the best city to study in” by the French magazine l’Etudiant, Toulouse has crafted a vibrant ecosystem and fertile ground for like-minds, which naturally lead to being labelled European City of Science in 2018.

Toulouse is an exceptional destination for great international conferences. Leaping from 130^th to 87^th position in ICCA’s international ranking of hosting cities, Toulouse has also joined its Top 50  preferred European Cities ranking.  It was therefore only natural that Toulouse was chosen in 2018 to host ESOF (EuroScience Open Forum), the largest interdisciplinary science meeting in Europe. Dedicated to scientific research and innovation it offered a unique framework for interaction and debate for scientists, innovators, educators, policy makers, business and the general public.

In this preserved city rich in 2,000 years of history, visitors will be pleased to stroll along the historic streets to discover the treasures of its architectural heritage (UNESCO classified, museums, architecture...). Strong tradition and permanent innovation make Toulouse a favorable destination in overcoming any challenges.

 CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE

The Toulouse ecosystem features an environment that boosts the success of new businesses. Project leaders will find that the area combines internationally renowned research centres, the headquarters of several major global companies, a network of startups that are among the most dynamic in France, and a concentration of various quality, high level skills.

The attractiveness of this territory relies on the combination of a strong academic background with an industrial network organized in clusters (IoT Valley, Aerospace Valley, Mipirail, Automotech, Robotics Place…) enabling the success of dedicated experimentations and cross-fertilization programs

Aerospace, New Technologies and Life Sciences are Toulouse's mayors centers of excellence.

A VIBRANT ECOSYSTEM & FERTILE GROUND FOR LIKE-MINDS federating researchers, engineers, students, young people, inquisitive locals and visitors that know about scientific culture.

8 local researchers ranked as world’s most influential scientists; more than double that of rankings found in other cities in the region (Clarivate Analytics, 2019). Jean Tirole, Nobel Prize laureate in 2014 from Toulouse's School of Economics.

3 UNESCO World Heritage sites

A SELECTION of VISITS