France’s Cybersecurity Chairs Unite at the École Militaire: Strengthening a National Ecosystem for Cybersecurity Research

French Cybersecurity Chairs play a central role in strengthening France’s cyber capabilities through research, innovation, education, and industrial collaboration. On 16 June 2026, representatives of these chairs met at the historic École Militaire in Paris for the annual inter-chair workshop organised by COMCYBER.

The meeting was organised by COMCYBER under the coordination of Patrice Jaouen, whose long-standing commitment has played an important role in developing and connecting France’s cybersecurity chair ecosystem.

Hosting the meeting at the École Militaire was particularly symbolic. Founded by Louis XV in 1751 and later attended by Napoleon Bonaparte, the institution has trained generations of military leaders and remains one of the central locations of French military education through the École de Guerre.

For almost three centuries, the École Militaire at Place Joffre in Paris has been one of France’s most emblematic institutions for military education. Founded in 1751 by King Louis XV to educate future officers, it has trained generations of military leaders—including Napoleon Bonaparte—and today continues this tradition as the home of the École de Guerre. Bringing together France’s cybersecurity chairs at such a historic location was therefore particularly symbolic.

On 16 June 2026, representatives of the country’s leading cybersecurity chairs met at the École Militaire for the annual inter-chair workshop organised by COMCYBER. The objective was to strengthen collaboration, exchange research activities, identify future synergies, and prepare the joint scientific programme for the European Cyber Week (ECW) 2026.

For the Cybersecurity of Critical Infrastructures Chair (Cyber CNI) at IMT Atlantique, participating in this meeting reflects one of our core convictions: protecting France’s and Europe’s critical infrastructures requires long-term collaboration between academia, industry, defence organisations, and public authorities.

French Cybersecurity Chairs: A National Ecosystem

France has developed a unique ecosystem of cybersecurity chairs addressing complementary scientific and operational challenges.

Collectively, they represent one of the most comprehensive national cybersecurity research ecosystems in Europe, covering topics such as:

Cybersecurity of Critical Infrastructures
Naval Cybersecurity
Digital Sovereignty
Operational Technology Security
Cyber Influence and Information Operations
Internet of Things Security
Complex Systems
Cryptography
Military Cyber Operations
European Cybersecurity Research

Rather than competing with one another, the chairs have developed a collaborative ecosystem in which expertise, experiences, and research priorities are regularly exchanged. This collective approach enables each chair to deepen its own scientific excellence while contributing to a broader national effort.

The Cyber CNI Chair Within This Ecosystem

As holder of the Cyber CNI Chair, Marc-Oliver Pahl presented the Chair’s current research activities, highlighting recent work on:

Cybersecurity of Critical Infrastructures
Cyber resilience
Digital twins for cybersecurity
Operational Technology (OT) security
Human-centred cybersecurity
Cyber-physical systems
Artificial Intelligence for cybersecurity
Security validation and testing
CyberSecDome and European collaborative research

As one of France’s largest and most active academic–industrial cybersecurity chairs, Cyber CNI develops research in close cooperation with industrial partners, defence stakeholders, public institutions, and European research consortia.

The discussions throughout the day demonstrated how naturally the Chair’s work complements research carried out by the other cybersecurity chairs while addressing common strategic challenges facing France and Europe.

French Cybersecurity Chairs Working Together

One of the greatest strengths of the French cybersecurity ecosystem lies in the close relationships that have developed between its researchers, chair holders, industrial partners, and defence organisations.

The inter-chair meeting therefore represented far more than a succession of research presentations. It was an opportunity to continue long-standing collaborations and to explore new opportunities for joint research and innovation.

The Cyber CNI Chair was pleased to exchange with colleagues and partners from across the national ecosystem, including representatives of:

COMCYBER
Chaire Cyber Navale (École navale)
Chaire Souveraineté Numérique et Cyber (IHEDN – Chaire Souveraineté Numérique et Cyber)
Chaire ICMS (Télécom Paris)
Chaire Cyber IoT (Université de Bretagne Occidentale)
Chaire Saint-Cyr Cyber Chaire Lutte Informatique d’Influence (Académie militaire de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan)
Chaire Systèmes Complexes (Université Bretagne Sud)
CEA
École de l’Air et de l’Espace

Among the participants were Patrice Jaouen (COMCYBER), Jean Peeters (IHEDN), David Brosset (Cyber Navale), Roland Gautier (Université de Bretagne Occidentale), Nicolas Belloir (Académie militaire de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan), Géraud Canet and Gaëlle Mistrulli (CEA), Jérémy Buisson (École de l’Air et de l’Espace), Salah Sadou (Université Bretagne Sud), and Sébastien Canard (Télécom Paris).

These regular exchanges create a trusted network that enables collaboration far beyond individual projects, facilitating scientific discussions, coordinated initiatives, and long-term partnerships across institutions.

Preparing European Cyber Week 2026

A major objective of the meeting was the preparation of the joint scientific programme for European Cyber Week 2026.

Each chair presented its latest research activities and discussed how they could be collectively showcased during ECW. This collaborative preparation reflects a shared ambition: demonstrating the richness, diversity, and international visibility of French cybersecurity research.

The Cyber CNI Chair looks forward to once again contributing its expertise on cybersecurity for critical infrastructures alongside the other chairs.

A Week Highlighting Cybersecurity at Every Level

The COMCYBER inter-chair meeting naturally complemented two other major events attended by the Cyber CNI Chair during the same week.

At VivaTech, discussions focused on research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and Franco-German collaboration.

At Eurosatory, attention turned to operational cyber resilience, defence, and industrial partnerships.

The inter-chair meeting completed this picture by illustrating the strength of France’s national cybersecurity research ecosystem. Together, these three events demonstrated how research, education, innovation, industry, and defence form a coherent continuum that contributes to strengthening France’s and Europe’s cyber resilience.

Working Together for France’s Cybersecurity

Cyber threats continue to evolve in scale, sophistication, and impact. Addressing these challenges requires much more than individual excellence.

It requires trusted partnerships.

The French ecosystem of cybersecurity chairs demonstrates how complementary expertise, regular exchanges, and long-term collaboration can significantly strengthen national cybersecurity capabilities.

The Cyber CNI Chair is proud to contribute to this ecosystem by connecting research excellence, industrial collaboration, European projects, and advanced education.

Working alongside our partners, we remain committed to strengthening the cybersecurity and resilience of France’s and Europe’s critical infrastructures while contributing to the country’s broader cyber defence ecosystem.

Marc-Oliver Pahl

Professor for Cybersecurity at IMT Atlantique | Chairholder CyberCNI.fr | VP German Chapter of the ACM | Cybersecurity Expert | Speaker at IMT Atlantique

Marc-Oliver Pahl is Professor at the Technical University IMT Atlantique at the campus Rennes, Brittany, France. He heads the Chair of Cybersecurity in Critical Networked Infrastructures (Cyber CNI) with currently 9 PhD students, 4 PostDocs, and 11 associated professors. He also supervises PhD students at Technical University of Munich.

Marc-Oliver is an adjunct professor of Carleton University in Canada. Marc-Oliver’s research focus is on a holistic approach to cybersecurity. He is an experienced teacher and an eLearning pioneer, holding several teaching awards.

Marc-Oliver holds a Diploma from University of Tübingen and a PhD from Technical University of Munich.

Marc-Oliver is Vice President of the German Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (https://germany.acm.org/). He heads the Future Education activities of the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future (https://future-industry.org/).

Marc-Oliver’s research focus is on a holistic approach to cybersecurity. He works on security-by-design, anomaly detection, human-in-the-loop, and automation. His goal is making cybersecurity manageable, resulting in highly resilient and reliable systems. Marc-Oliver publishes regularly in the network and service management and security communities.

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