1. General information 1.5.

SWOT analysis

co-authored with researchers from other laboratories. However, if we limit ourselves to LTCI we
can hope for more results common to different teams. In an attempt to improve the interactions
between our teams, we opened some positions on shared profiles supported by at least two
teams. We succeeded in doing that, for instance, between SSH and ACES, DIVA and IMAGES,
but the benefits of this initiative remained limited. We are now trying to involve in our major
projects (especially in the Chairs), several teams with complementary expertise around concrete
challenges (AI, cybersecurity, autonomous cars, etc.).

The opportunities are:

• An area of expertise (ICT) at the heart of today’s major challenges. This is very motivating
for our researchers (including our doctoral students and postdocs) in addition to the fact that
it allows obtaining significant funding for our work. A lot of challenging problems and concrete
applications are raising continuously in this domain.
• Networks of strong national and international collaborations, which is very useful for our re-
cruitments (at all levels) and our reputation.
• The reorganization of French higher education. This is a unique opportunity for Télécom Paris-
tech and LTCI, in particular, to try to bring its experience and expertise, together with those
of its partners, to create a top-tier university internationally known. We are doing our best to
reach this challenging goal with our partners in NewUni.
• Quality of our students and a strong bond between the school and its students. This is an asset
for Télécom ParisTech and the LTCI. We have a pool of very good students of which a small
part is pursuing doctoral studies after their graduation from Télécom ParisTech. We try to
raise the awareness of these students to scientific research and to offer funding for those who
wish to pursue doctoral studies in our laboratories (for instance, through the Future & Rupture
Programme of the IMT). This effort will certainly continue in the coming years.

The possible threats for the coming period are:

• End of the partnership with CNRS. The end of the UMR CNRS had as a consequence for
the laboratory the loss of some very dynamic researchers. We tried to limit this impact by
restructuring the most impacted teams and by the opening of new positions. We have also made
some changes in the governance of the laboratory: 1. participation of the director of the LTCI
in the main committees and governance bodies of Télécom ParisTech (executive committee,
recruitment commissions, promotions committee, etc.); 2. coupling of the Direction of Research
of Télécom ParisTech with the Direction of the LTCI in order to make it easier, for the Director
of the LTCI, the access to the administrative and management staff dedicated to the research
activity of Télécom ParisTech; 3. creation of a monthly coordination meeting between the
director of LTCI, his deputy directors, and the three heads of the departments composing the
LTCI; 4. establishment of a clear procedure, managed by LTCI, for prioritizing research profiles
in the open positions (profils de postes), based on the needs expressed by the teams, in which
the board of the lab plays a major role (selecting, reviewing and ranking the proposals); 5.
involvement of LTCI in the redistribution of the financial resources generated by the contracts
through grants given by the lab to its 16 teams (3% of turnover of the departments is thus
redistributed by LTCI).
However, we believe that the National Research Organizations (in particular the CNRS and
INRIA) will have to play an important role in the structuring of the research activity in Paris-
Saclay and NewUni. This will necessarily impact the future of our laboratory. LTCI, like all
other NewUni laboratories, should therefore be associated with a national research organization
within NewUni. Direct discussions, and through NewUni, will, therefore, be done with the
CNRS and INRIA in the coming period to agree on a common vision of the organization of
research and its governance within NewUni. LTCI intends to participate in these discussions
and in the elaboration of the choices that will be made.

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