UM6P and Deloitte Morocco Cyber Center sign a Cooperation Agreement in Scientific and Technological Research and Development

Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and Deloitte Morocco Cyber Center (Deloitte MCC), a Moroccan center of expertise specialized in cybersecurity and a member of Deloitte's global network, have signed a cooperation framework agreement.

This partnership of excellence aims to promote high-level scientific and technological research in cybersecurity in Morocco and on the African continent. With the dual objective of training tomorrow's talent and building new security solutions, the program will be built around three main pillars:

- The development of an academic pathway leading to certification and a degree recognized at the level of the best international standards,
- The creation of ambitious research and development programs aimed at increasing innovation and anticipating the major transformations to come (post-quantum cryptography, use of artificial intelligence, etc.),
- The design of a professional integration path within Deloitte Morocco Cyber Center and more generally within the Deloitte network.

The program facilitates the joint development of expertise by bringing together the teams of UM6P and Deloitte MCC in order to build a wide range of technical, organizational and strategic skills and to reach out to the entire African continent. 

Particular attention is paid to the development of strategies, new capabilities, tools and innovative technologies to better protect the economic fabric against cyber attacks (systematic mapping of risk levels, threat analysis and monitoring of the main groups of attackers, detection of possible compromises, and incident response). 

As a university resolutely oriented towards research and training in the fields of engineering, business and economic and social sciences, UM6P aims through this partnership to strengthen its cooperation with the professional world by ensuring technology transfer to Moroccan and more widely African companies. Following the signing of the agreement, Mr. Hicham El Habti, President of UM6P, said: "At UM6P, our adoption of digital as a catalyst for innovation is already bearing fruit. Thanks to this adoption, our ecosystem of start-ups is growing steadily, and our academic programs in computer science, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence are becoming national references. For our community of researchers and students, it is now necessary to link these innovations to their concrete applications in the business world. I am confident that our partnership with our colleagues at Deloitte MCC will contribute significantly to sealing the link between research and the professional world in Morocco and Africa.

For its part, Deloitte, a company specializing in consulting, is among the world leaders in cybersecurity. It confirms, through this framework agreement, its willingness to support initiatives in innovation, training and skills development in the field of digital security.

In this regard, Mr. Imade Elbaraka, partner in charge of cyber activities at Deloitte France and Francophone Africa, and also Managing Director of Deloitte MCC said: "This new ambitious partnership allows the construction of a bridge between the academic world and the business world, thanks to the support of public institutions and the State. We believe that this is the only way to create ecosystems that can train and retain high-level talent while fostering the emergence of new business models that are attractive to start-ups, scale-ups, and specialized investment funds. This dynamic is key to strengthening Moroccan and African digital sovereignty, which is essential to meet the challenges facing the continent.