Boston: The future of a tradition

There's something paradoxical about Boston. A diffuse feeling, a mystery that you sense without immediately understanding. Founded in 1630 on the banks of the Charles River, Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States. Its long, solemn streets lined with maple trees and brownstones, typical nineteenth-century red sandstone houses, command silence and respect, almost shyness. It's a far cry from New York and all its extravagance. Yet a third of Boston's 650,000 inhabitants - two million including the metropolitan area - are under 30.

Isn't that where the enigma lies, in these figures? In the fact that Boston is basically... an old city of young people? A puritanical city that has a hard time letting go of the tie, but is still a little rebellious and very much focused on the future and innovation? Nothing is more representative of this apparent contrast than the presence in Cambridge, on the other side of the river, of the oldest university in the country, Harvard, inaugurated in 1636. From generation to generation, an often gilded but progressive youth has been trained here, from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama, from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg or Natalie Portman.

A researcher in the sociology department of this venerable institution, Nina Gheihman explains that, while the characteristics of the WASP - White Anglo Saxon Protestant - elite still exist, the use of the term now borders on the insulting. "Since the political movements of the 1960s - civil rights, feminism, pacifism, etc. - being regarded as the elite implies an idea of privilege in a negative sense, and nobody wants to be identified as a WASP."says the sociologist.

And yet the WASP spirit lives on all along the East Coast of the United States, where the string of Ivy League universities - the pantheon of the academic world across the Atlantic - such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, is endless. A spirit where tradition and innovation are not an oxymoron. Back in 1886, when he published The BostoniansHenry James evoked this curious disposition of the New England bourgeoisie, at once elitist and the bearer of revolutions, in this case that of the suffragettes. More than a century later, it is no coincidence that, in 2004, Massachusetts became the first American state to vote in favour of gay marriage. Well ahead of New York in 2011. Well ahead of California in 2013.

Fundamental research

Beyond this societal aspect, what has really been revolutionising Boston for over a decade is the life sciences. "The Business France branch in Boston focuses solely on health and biotech, such is the importance of these activities here.It's all the rage in Boston," explains Charles-Henry Dion, Business France cluster manager. In the same way as high-tech in San Francisco, biotech and healthcare have become the driving forces in Boston. Although companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft are also present here. Right in the heart of Cambridge, Kendall Square is home to the largest number of pharmaceutical and healthcare R&D centres in the world. "This is where new molecules are identified and developed"says Charles-Henry Dion. This profusion is no accident. On the one hand, because the nearby and famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has contributed organically to this boom, but also because a real political will has enabled Boston to become a key hub for scientific research. "Boston has taken on the challenge of attracting the big behemoths of the field, such as Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and Novartis, whereas historically the pharmaceutical industry was mainly present in New Jersey or Pennsylvania.says Charles-Henry Dion. Any global biopharmaceutical player needs to have a presence in Boston."

Yet in the 19th century, Boston's fortunes were built not on science, but on trade and the textile industry, and its cultural influence was strengthened. Major patrons of the industry, such as Isabella Steward Gardner, the daughter of a merchant, helped to open museums and libraries like the elegant Athenaeum, and to create orchestras like the Boston Symphony, one of America's 'Big Five'. The current presence of major fashion brands - Converse, Reebok and New Balance are all headquartered in Boston - is a vestige of this brilliant commercial past. Then, in the 20th century, the city gradually turned its attention to insurance and pension funds, with companies like Prudential, Liberty Mutual and State Street still active today...

It was finally under Governor Deval Patrick, in office from 2007 to 2015, that the desire to make Boston a "Super Cluster" in the life sciences really took hold. The "One Billion Dollar Bill", a billion-dollar investment in healthcare companies, propelled the capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to the forefront.

As a result, Kendall Square has become a breeding ground for hundreds of research laboratories and biotech companies within a radius that can be covered in less than twenty minutes. One factor explains this success: the educational environment. No fewer than a hundred of the world's most prestigious higher education institutions are concentrated within an hour's radius of Boston, including MIT and Harvard of course, but also Boston University, Northeastern, Tufts, UMass, Smith College and Brown University... In addition to this university density, Boston is home to prestigious research hospitals supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health. As a result, innovations can be immediately applied and tested in the hospital environment, which is attracting more and more major companies looking for innovative solutions.

The other side of the coin: while this concentration of players offers a dynamic that is unique in the world, property prices are skyrocketing. Boston has just become the third most expensive city in the United States, after San Francisco and New York. "Despite this, there is a tendency for students to want to stay in the region once they have finished their studies. In less than ten years, Boston's population has grown by 5 %"says Nam Pham, Secretary of Economic Development for the Massachusetts government.

Not yet qualifiedômé, already hired

Indeed, companies come to recruit the 200,000 students who attend our campuses, even before they have finished their studies. Boston has a few delightful attractions to offer them: apart from an expensive city centre, new hip neighbourhoods like South End and Seaport are springing up, with contemporary art museums, high-tech community centres and locavore restaurants. "It's a great place to live and the economy is thriving, particularly with the development of Seaport, also known as the Innovation District. Some sectors here have no unemployment"concludes the economic development specialist. According to Ludivine Wolczik, Director of the Franco-American Chamber of Commerce in Boston, many French companies are tempted to set up in Massachusetts, one of the top three choices across the Atlantic for the life sciences sector, along with Silicon Valley and New York. Geographical proximity and the small time difference with Europe - six hours, compared with nine hours with California - also play a decisive role. "French entrepreneurs know that by waking up early in Boston, they can have a few hours of work in common with the Hexagone"says the director.

In her view, other sectors outside biotech are also beginning to take off, notably clean tech, which is on a roll with the recent creation of institutions such as the Mass Clean Energy Center, the New England Clean Energy Council and the Greentown Labs incubator, as well as software publishing. "This software is often linked to team management, life sciences or finance. And while New York remains the country's financial capital, Boston is the number one place for venture capital."says Ludivine Wolczik. So more and more business angels are taking to the streets of Boston, gradually transforming it into a new paradise for start-ups.

Major universities

MIT or the praise of practical intelligence

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with its 85 Nobel Prize winners, is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in the United States. But how does it differ from other major American universities? According to Professor Richard K. Lester, Dean of International Affairs, MIT has always focused on practical impact, over and above its intellectual dimension. "Founded on the banks of the Charles River in 1861, the institute's ambition was to fill the gap left by its larger neighbour Harvard: that of supporting local industry and agriculture by training young talent and creating new knowledge". This concern for practicality has remained in the DNA of the campus, with the motto "Mens et Manus", mind and hand. "While the importance of the basic sciences is now central, the application of discoveries at an economic and ecological level, as well as the desire to solve the world's major problems, are essential," asserts Professor Lester.

MIT has therefore had very strong links with industry since the 19th century. Today, 750 partner companies are seeking to understand the future of their sectors by encouraging students to find innovative solutions to their problems. As a result, the university has become the one that receives the most funding from companies in the world. Students and lecturers are themselves heavily involved in business start-ups. Of the 120,000 or so alumni who are still active, 30,000 have launched companies that now account for 4.6 million jobs worldwide and a turnover of 1.9 trillion dollars, the equivalent of the world's 10th largest economy. "This has a huge impact on the global economy, but also locally," admits Richard K. Lester, "because 7,000 of these companies are based in Massachusetts, particularly in Cambridge, in the Kendall Square area. This is where the largest number of life sciences research laboratories in the world are concentrated, all in direct proximity to MIT and under the aegis of this gigantic generator of talent". The influence of 'America's brain' is also evident in the extravagant buildings that dot the campus, most of them designed by the great names in architecture such as I.M. Pei and Frank Gehry. Innovation does not stop at the disciplines taught, whether in the physical sciences, biology, economics, linguistics - Noam Chomsky is an emeritus professor here - or the study of the brain and the social sciences. MIT is also a temple of diversity: 40 % of postgraduate students and more than a third of teaching staff were born outside the United States, while 46 % of the student population is female.