The kick-off meeting of the NETCONF project – Scientific Networks and Congresses “Understanding the effect of congresses on the dynamics of scientific networks” was held on 22 November 2019 in Paris at the Institut de Géographie de la Sorbonne.

The meeting brought together Bastien Bernela, project co-leader (MCF at the University of Poitiers), Thibaud Boncourt (MCF at the University of Paris 1), Mariannig Le Bechec (MCF at the University of Lyon), François Jérôme (on Skype), Mégane Fernandez (currently a PhD student at UMR Géographie-cités, Master student at the time of the meeting) and Denis Eckert (DR at UMR Géographie-cités). François Briatte, co-leader of the project (Assistant Professor at the Université Catholique de Lille) was excused.

The programme for the day was as follows:

10:00 – 10:15 – Introduction of participants

10:15 – 12:30 – The NETCONF Project:

  • 10:15 – 10:30: Reminder of scientific objectives
  • 10:30 – 12:30: Presentation of the two main “fields”
  • 10:30 – 11:30: The ISGC: Skype with François Jérôme
  • 11:30 – 12:30: The AFSP

12:30 – 14:00 – Lunch

14:00 – 15:30 –  Building a common bibliography and methodology

3:30 – 4:30 pm –  Miscellaneous items: recruitment of a trainee and valorisation at SUNBELT 2020