On Wednesday, January 29, 2025, Thierry Coulhon, Chairman of the Board of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, and François Houllier, Chairman and CEO of Ifremer, inaugurated the Centre Interdisciplinaire Mers et Océan (CIMO) in the presence of Élisabeth Crépon and Éric Jaeger, respectively Director General and Deputy Director General of ENSTA.
This new center marks a turning point for collaborative research in marine engineering, bringing together researchers as well as academic and industrial partners. It is also one of the first major deliverables from the merger of ENSTA Paris and ENSTA Bretagne as part of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, effective January 1, 2025.
A Project Serving Ecological Transition
One of the center's missions is to trainstudents, which draws from the expertise and complementarity of IP Paris's leading engineering schools, such as ENSTA and ENPC. To illustrate this ambition, the OFFWIND Master's degree - Offshore Wind Energy which opened in September 2025, will train 250 graduates over five years.
CIMO paves the way for new academic partnerships, notably with the École Navale, IMT Atlantique, and a collaboration with the French Navy's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOM).
For its launch, CIMO is supported by CNRS and the French Defense Innovation Agency (AID), which is funding its first projects.
From left to right: Eric Jaeger, Deputy Managing Director of ENSTA; Laurent Mortier, Scientific Director of CIMO; Elisabeth Crépon, Managing Director of ENSTA; François Houllier, Chairman and CEO of IFREMER; Thierry Coulhon, Chairman of the Board at Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Laurent Giovachini, Chairman of the Board at ENSTA; Margot Provost, Deputy Director of Research and Innovation, ENSTA; Shabnam Arbab Chirani, Professor, ENSTA.
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