Scientists display heterogeneous profiles regarding the focus of their knowledge production activities, their collaboration strategies and their outcomes. Despite increasing interests on research collaboration, little is known about how scientists mobilize their research network. In their knowledge creation efforts, scientists collaborate with colleagues from both academia and industry. These collaborations, leading or not to co-authorship, allow scientists to access to a number of research resources. The objective of this study is to explore whether and how knowledge production across the four Stokes’ quadrants (different focus on fundamental understandings and on immediate industrial and social application) is associated with specific modes of mobilizing research resources. This study examines empirically the relationship between scientific knowledge production, research resources and collaboration networks, using bibliometric and survey data on 116 scientists active in biotechnology in the Netherlands. Our results suggest that different knowledge creation objectives and outcomes are associated with particular ways of activating the network, and mobilize it to access specific research resources.