Inauguration of the CIMO, Interdisciplinary Center for Seas and Ocean
From left to right : Eric Jaeger, directeur général délégué de l’ENSTA, Laurent Mortier, directeur scientifique du CIMO, Elisabeth Crépon, directrice générale de l’ENSTA, François Houllier, président-directeur général de l’IFREMER, Thierry Coulhon, président du directoire de l'Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Laurent Giovachini, président du conseil d’administration de l’ENSTA, Margot Provost, directrice adjointe de la recherche et de l'innovation de l’ENSTA et responsable opérationnelle du CIMO, Shabnam Arbab Chirani, professeure à l’ENSTA.
Maritime: a strategic priority for France
France holds a leading international position in economic, industrial and scientific fields related to the sea. Bringing together interdisciplinary research teams from IP Paris and Ifremer. CIMO is fully aligned with French initiatives to reduce the ecological footprint or maritime activities and strenghten environmental monitoring of marine environments.
The merger of ENSTA in 2025 within IP Paris, with two campus in Palaiseau and Brest offers a new dynamic in research, training and innovation to meet the major issues facing the maritime sector.
A center dedicated to maritime applications
- Marine engineering for sustainable ships;
- Ocean observing for society;
- Ressource management, coastal development and the environment.
These fields mobilize a wide range of expertise from mechanical sciences to underwater robotics, naval architecture, marine energies, information technologies and maritime cybersecurity.
A project in favour of ecological transition
One of the center's missions is to train students, drawing on 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 in Offshore Wind Energy, due to open 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.
The French Defense Innovation Agency (AID) is funding its first projects.
Thierry Coulhon, Chairman of the board of Institut Polytechnique de Paris emphasizes " the Interdisciplinary Center for Seas and Ocean will enhance our teaching and research capabilities in this strategic field. It will benefit from the convergence between IP Paris research laboratories and Ifremer's expertise, reinforced by industrial specialists in this field. CIMO is IP Paris's seventh interdisciplinary center, whose research activities interface with those of CIEDS, Hi! PARIS and E4C".
François Houllier, Chairman and CEO of Ifremer, points out that “innovation is born where disciplines meet, and the Interdisciplinary Seas and Ocean Center embodies our shared commitment to pushing back the boundaries of knowledge, in order to preserve and enhance the richness of the ocean. Together, on the eve of the Year of the Sea and the United Nations Ocean Conference, Ifremer and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris are opening up new avenues to enable younger generations to build sustainable ocean engineering.”
Laurent Mortier, Scientific Director of the Center, explains that “the researchers of this new interdisciplinary center will bring to marine science research and to today's major maritime challenges a specificity in engineering sciences that complements what their colleagues at universities and the CNRS are doing. The synergies that CIMO will be able to create on a national scale will enable French marine science research, already one of the most important in the world, to cover even more and better the different fields of research.”
From left to right : Thierry Coulhon, président du directoire de l'Institut Polytechnique de Paris, François Houllier, président-directeur général de l’IFREMER.