Hub
Drones
Since drones are becoming an integral part of our daily lives, Systematic’s Drones Hub provides services dedicated to the economic growth of drone operators, develops training courses to meet the needs of those players, and works to build strategic partnerships between them and support their development and internationalization.
To this end, it will mobilise all of its assets to fully play its role as an accelerator of innovation and economic development. It will also bring support for the creation of skilled jobs and contribute to the international reach of french pioneers in the sector.
The Drones’ Hub will manage the largest air space dedicated to drone operators in the Paris (Ile-de-France) region, as well as the administration of its building, intended to be a place of business incubation and work spaces for its members.
The Drones’ Hub therefore wishes to consolidate and develop this potential to make the Paris (Ile-de-France) Region the leading region in the french drone sector. That said, its influence should not only be national. The Hub is aiming to raise its visibility internationally by increasing its members’ participation in the various worldwide calls for proposals that will help promote french innovation and know-how in the drone market.
- strengthen France’s capacity for innovation in UAVs, in particular through collaborative R&D projects resulting from the creation of an ecosystem of excellence in the Paris Region;
- accelerate the transition towards industrial scale by offering an operational tool adapted to drone experiments and use cases;
- help French drone industry champions emerge by facilitating their access to markets, particularly export markets;
- support public authorities in the validation and certification of UAV operations and help France maintain its position as a leading aerospace nation.
- Federate the drone ecosystem around a vision of national and European construction
- Ensure the Hub’s leadership through promotional actions for the sector, via industry monitoring, promotion of skills and technologies, as well as animating the ecosystem through events
- Manage the development and operational implementation of the new test centre,
- Build a technological roadmap to bring out R&D projects and use cases (autonomous systems, cohabitation between drones and aircraft, propulsion of the future, anti-drone combat, embedded AI, 5G, etc.).
- Support competitiveness
- Facilitate access to funding
The initiative to create the CEDIF is supported by three main players: Thales, Eurocontrol and Systematic, with the aim of offering a complete platform to incubate, validate and industrialise all direct and indirect drone activities.
The ambition of the Centre of Excellence for Drones is threefold :
- Territorial ambition :
- To bring together on this site the first players in the emerging “Drone France” sector (manufacturers, engineering, fuel incl. hydrogen, maintenance, start-ups, associations, universities, etc.),
- To generate activity and qualified jobs,
- To effectively address the issue of nuisance and risks.
- National ambition :
- To position Paris-Region (Ile de France) as a national leader in the development of drone technologies and use cases that will be carried out by all players,
- To support the development and integration of all technologies required for the growth of drone traffic,
- To promote french technological know-how during the 2024 Olympic Games.
- Pan-European ambition ::
- To define and harmonise procedures and regulations,
- To implement drone standards, traffic management systems and communication and surveillance solutions that facilitate market access for the various players.
Key figures
- European drone market : + 10 billion euro/year, in nominal terms, by 2035*
- Valuation of the European market at 400,000 drones (100,000 drones in France) by 2035*
- Creation of nearly 100,000 jobs in Europe by 2035*
- Release of nearly 200 million euros of public and private investment by 2035*
- Annual growth of the professional civilian drone market : 27,2% between 2018 and 2024**
* “European Drones Outlook Study” by SESAR Joint Undertaking, Nov 2016
** SVP study, June 2020

Morgan BERTIN, Director, Digital ATC & UTM Services, Thales
President of Systematic’s Drones Hub
The first technological bricks ensuring the provision of airspaces dedicated to drones are appearing. They offer the opportunity of a safe access, able to absorb the growth to come. Over the next ten years, these airspaces will see their geographical coverage expanded and their technologies more mature, offering the entire European drone industry the opportunity to realize its ambitions.
The creation of the Drones’ Hub, supported by the Paris (Île-de-France) Region, is part of this dynamic and affirms Systematic’s ambition to develop and accelerate the economic, technological, regulatory and societal potential of the drone market.
The Drones’ Hub will therefore cover at the same time the subject of access to and defense of airspaces, the technological aspects of the “drone” aircraft and the payload technologies (linked to the purpose of the aircraft’s use).
But the Drones’ Hub will also have to meet the expectations of its members, in particular by enabling them to be seen and heard, and by promoting business networking opportunities. We will also be there to support them in accessing projects and funding. Finally, we will provide them with an exceptional testing ground, embodied by the CEDIF (Drone Center of Excellence Ile-de-France), to test and mature their technologies and applications. The Drones’ Hub will support them at every stage of their development, up to industrialization.
Today, we are at the dawn of a large-scale and, above all, sustainable use of these technologies, which will have to contribute to the major challenges of the 21st century. So, by combining the power and skills of the Systematic ecosystem and its partners with the potential of the Paris Region, there is no doubt that the Drones’ Hub has many years of challenges and successes ahead of it!
Governance
The President

Morgan BERTIN
Director, Digital ATC & UTM Solutions – Thales
After 5 years at Boston Consulting Group, Morgan joined Thales in 2021 to lead the UTM (Unmanned Aerial System Traffic Management) activities. In this role, he supports customers in designing, deploying and operating future airspaces that enable the scaling up of drone operations, which are vectors of economic growth and catalysts for new and environmentally friendly solutions.
Morgan is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, an associate professor in engineering sciences and a doctor in solid mechanics from the University of Paris-Saclay. He is a recipient of the George Stephenson Gold Medal from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. In parallel, he is a reserve captain in the French Army with several engagements in external operations.
Les Vice-Présidents

Arnaud BAZIN
Director
Drones Center
Promotion of the sector

Moncef HAMMADI
Senior Lecturer
ISAE-Supméca
Technological challenges

Maria DI CAPRIAN
President
CDSI
Technological challenges

Patrick BERNARD
Head of System Management
Eurocontrol
European network

Abdelkrim DOUFENE
Director of Strategy and Programmes
IRT SystemX
R&D Projects

Jérôme SNOLLAERTS
Co-Founder, Executive board member & CFO
DragonFlyPads
R&D Projects

Manuel LE BAIL
Quality, Validation and Certification Director
Parrot
Industrialization & major events

Pierre Vilpoux
President
Uavia
Industrialization & major events