Creation of the GIS CORMORANT with Thales

2nd Thales GIS in France

Through this consortium, Thales and its partners intend to consolidate and develop further technological advances and visibility in the fields covered. At present, more than ten new PhDs are already under way in the fields dealt with by the Consortium, and several studies are being defined.

This Scientific Interest Consortium is the second one involving Thales in France, after the ALBATROS consortium which is already in operation in the Grande Aquitaine region.

• It involves the main research laboratories in the West Brittany region: the lab-STICC UMR CNRS 6285 laboratory with its supervisory bodies, CNRS, ENIB, ENSTA Bretagne, IMT Atlantique, UBO and UBS; IRENAV of the Ecole navale; the L@bISEN, the ISEN Yncréa Ouest laboratory
• Each of these laboratories is a long-standing partner of the Thales Group.
• Governance, shared equally between industry and academics, is based on a steering committee which defines the main strategies of this GIS and allocates the required resources, on a scientific committee which proposes the study fields, and on a management team which implements the decisions.
• Celadon's presence on the GIS steering committee also attests to the partners' intention to go as far as sea trials. Celadon is the Brest-based association that manages the SeaTestBase, an offshore measurement base with a test boat.

MARIE-JOSÉE VAIRON, HEAD OF THE THALES PLANT IN BREST AND CHAIR OF THE CORMORANT GIS

I am very honoured to have been chosen to lead this new partnership, which will play an essential role in the development of industrial and academic expertise in Brittany and France, on key subjects such as the independence of maritime systems, human/system interaction and smart sensors. Through this consortium, Thales and its partners will further develop a number of ongoing projects, some of which are associated with the major international cooperative ventures established by Thales in the context of its contracts, in particular in India, Singapore and Australia.

CHRISTIAN PERSON, CHAIR OF THE CORMORANT GIS SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

The scientific committee is chaired by Christian Person, Head of the Lab-STICC laboratory and joint head of the GIS, along with Vincent Verbeque, from Thales' Technical Management.

CORMORANT reflects the formalization of a close-knit, major cooperation between three academic research laboratories in Brittany along the Atlantic Ocean and Thales, in multiple formats, thereby providing a major research force in the field of maritime embedded systems, for all their applications: surveillance, observation and security. The various entities involved contribute their multiple and above all complementary skills to all the research fields the GIS is involved in, both with regard to "hardware" technologies specific to embedded systems (smart sensors, functionalized materials, signal processing, embedded processors) and with regard to techniques for advanced human/complex system interfaces and interactions (advanced data processing using artificial intelligence, decision-aid tools, advanced imaging techniques, etc.). The GIS creates a remarkable framework for scientific work and interchanges, enabling upstream research to be confronted with large-scale industrial issues, on an international scale.