6

In France, the Comité national des universités (CNU) plays a key role in university recruitments. Indeed, after having completed his/her thesis, one must be qualified by this national body to be candidate for an assistant professor position. Some of this information contained in the application forms finally qualified were not systematically analysed. So they can be considered as new. Thus they can be analysed to report on the French university and urban geography of these particular theses. This information can be studied to highlight “new” research themes covered. The analysis of such information thus broaden the geography of science in France. Outings are conducted here based on the qualified files in the 23rd section of the CNU, entitled “Physical, Human, Economic and Regional Geography”, from 2016 to 2019. They highlight that the majority of qualified theses were completed in a university. They also highlight the very high concentration of qualified theses in the Paris agglomeration. Beyond they show cities, with a very high number of theses qualified by supervisor and specific research themes, such as Brest in Brittany. These first results raise plenty of questions about the inertia of the geography of qualified theses. They also raise plenty of questions about the stability of research topics and the potential for doctoral supervision.