Bringing capabilities together

Set up in 2014 under the aegis of the French Ministry for Armed Forces and the Regional Council of Bretagne, the “Pôle d’excellence cyber” operates nationwide and aims to extend its scope internationally. It is clustered around the Ministry’s actors, which rely on Bretagne’s academic and industrial network as well as national and foreign partners.The roadmap of the “Pôle d’excellence cyber” is to boost the development of:

– the offer of cyber training (basic, in-service and higher education),
– academic cyber research,
– the Cyber Technological and Industrial Base, with special regards to innovative SMEs-SMIs and their access to international markets.

The “Pôle d’excellence cyber” addresses 3 major challenges, for the benefit of the French cyber defence and cybersecurity communities:
– offering the appropriate skills for the development of the cyber industry,
– offering a panel of research coherent with the needs of the Ministry and the industry,
– offering trusted solutions and services.

A collaborative and networking organization

As a non-profit-making association, the “Pôle d’excellence cyber” brings together civilian and military, public and private, academic and industry key players, drawing on their respective skills and areas of expertise.

Thematic expert groups and working groups (training, research, industrial development, platforms, frame of reference…) bring together all members and partners of the Pôle.

This pragmatic approach allows a better interaction and cooperation within the cluster, thus remaining coherent, effective, responsive and operating in project mode.

As of now, the “Pôle d’excellence cyber” has created four industrial chairs on cyber defence, naval systems, threat analysis and vital industrial systems; more than 20 new training programmes, among which a master’s degree specialized in cyber defence conduct of operations and crisis management. 12 M€ are granted over a 6-year period to theses, post-doctorate levels and scientific seminars; 6.3 M€ are invested in research and training platforms.

The “Pôle d’excellence cyber” musters now more than 30 active members from training, research, economic development sectors as well as the Ministry for Armed Forces, with over a dozen major industries such as Airbus Defence & Space, Amossys, Cap Gemini Sogeti, DCI, DCNS, EDF, La Poste, Nokia, Orange, Sopra Steria, Thales…