What is the role of distance in the location of international R&D activities? We submit that geographic distance has a relatively low impact on international R&D investments due to the limited importance of trade costs and to the spiky nature of innovation. While low (and decreasing) costs of transmitting information facilitate decisions to carry out R&D activities in remote locations, the fact that valuable knowledge tends to be concentrated in space induces MNEs to set up their labs as close as possible to potential sources of knowledge spillovers, largely regardless of distance from their home-base. Due to the role of trust in facilitating communication and knowledge exchanges, social, cultural and institutional connectors may compensate for geographic distance in cross-border R&D investment decisions. Using data on R&D and manufacturing investments of 6,320 firms in 59 countries, we find that the commonality of language, belonging to the same trade area or sharing similar religious attitudes help explain bilateral R&D investments more than geographic separation. Indeed, once accounted for such social, cultural and institutional connectors, MNEs are equally likely to set-up R&D labs in nearby or in more remote locations. (With Antonello Zanfei and Alfredo Jimenez.)