Initiated in 1955 on the Saclay Plateau, it is 20 kilometers southwest of Paris, in the heart of the Paris-Saclay scientific and technological center.

The Bois de la Guyonnerie runs through the middle of the campus on either side.

Its numerous teaching buildings and 60 research laboratories are located on a 200 ha site of woodland containing many rare species.

[2] As part of this project, the former University of Paris-Sud and the Paris-Saclay Public Development Establishment supported the creation of PROTO204, a third place intended to host conferences, meetings and co-working activities, to facilitate student entrepreneurship.

After World War II, the rapid growth of nuclear physics and chemistry meant that research needed more and more powerful accelerators, which required large areas.