- 2020 INTEGRATED REPORT 24 VISION AND STRATEGY AN ORGANISATION FOCUSED ON INNOVATION Driven by a passion to innovate, Thales is one of the few groups in the world capable of mobilising thousands of researchers and engineers, significant financial and technical resources, and world-class partnerships to build a confident future. As a source of progress, innovation increases the performance of our products tenfold, unites employees around a common project and provides competitive advantages. BREAKTHROUGH INNOVATION AT THALES Thales is designing solutions in a universe of extreme complexity. These systems, products andequipment often require long-termdevelopment based on the most advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence or quantum physics. This capacity for innovation is the result of sustained economic relations, agile methods and a critical mass in industrial, commercial and scientific terms. These combined assets form an ideal breeding ground to promote the emergence of technologies and services that make tomorrow possible today. Cooperate to better innovate For the past six years, Thales has effectively structured its work around startups, which are great sources of innovation. More than 1,200 startups have been referenced by Thales and more than 160 “proof of concept” projects have been carried out in a number of business areas. Thales is involved in the acceleration ecosystem of these new companies through, for example, the founding of Starburst, an incubator specializing in the aeronautics and space sector, the creation of the AI@Centech programme to support the emergence of future world leaders in AI, or the organization of the first European Innovation Council Corporate Day , which brings together 14 of the most innovative startups in Europe. Training is also part of the overall cooperation strategy with the academic world. Thales supports around 220 PhD students around the world. They work on topics directly related to Thales’s technical issues, which makes the Group more appealing to young scientists. The TrUE AI approach, trusted artificial intelligence The critical applications on which Thales is working need to rely on understandable and completely trustworthy technological systems. TrUE AI is the new Thales framework for developing projects in artificial intelligence. It follows transparency, ethics and intelligibility requirements. Thales seeks alternative paths to deep learning, criticised for its opacity and its high data and energy consumption. Regarding transparency, Thales is working to better identify data biases and develop ways to correct them. Lastly, security remains a key component: the authenticity of the data must be verified and guaranteed not to have been corrupted. 23,000 An intellectual property portfolio enhanced by more than patents Thales ranked for the sixth consecutive year in the Top 100 Global Innovators of Clarivate Analytics 3 Digital Factories WITH ITS EXCEPTIONAL CAPACITY FOR INNOVATION, THALES IS WELL POSITIONED TO MEET THE MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIETAL CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE. Bernhard Quendt, SVP, Chief Technical Officer 400 patent applications in 2020, including More than in key digital technologies 25% KEY FIGURES