Pole SCS - Secured Communication Solution (coordinator)

The SCS (Secured Communicating Solutions) cluster is based in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, in France, and gathers more than 300 members, including companies (and 70% of SMEs), research centres and educational institutions in the fields of microelectronics, telecommunications and software. The cluster represents 60 000 jobs in these fields, 26 multinational companies, 1200 researchers in the public sector and 18 educational institutions training 1500 engineers per year.

Its aim is to promote the development of competitive R&D projects between all these players with the support of local communities, in order to design and develop new solutions targeting high-growth markets such as banking and e-payment, smart grids, smart manufacturing, e-health, e-mobility, or retail. It also aims to contribute to the creation of an appropriate ecosystem for the overall regional ICT landscape, especially through the development of SMEs.

Its ambition is to be recognized as a key player in innovation in the three “Smart Specialisation Area” (SSA) that constitute the core of its strategy:

• Contactless technologies (NFC, RFID);
• Networks (4G/LTE/IMS), M2M & mobile services;
• Digital security & identities.

The SCS cluster has been awarded with the ESCA (European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis) Gold Label in July 2013, proving its gold standard excellence in terms of cluster management.