Who are we?

PEReN is an interministerial office with national competence placed under the joint authority of the ministers responsible for the economy, culture and digital affairs. It was created by the decree of 31 August 2020. For administrative and financial management purposes, it reports to the Director General for Enterprise.

The PEReN’s missions

Today, mastering data science and algorithms is an essential prerequisite for:

• understanding and analysing how digital platforms work;
• enabling public authorities to design, implement and adapt their regulations.

PEReN was created in response to the need for cutting-edge technical expertise on subjects whose complexity requires the pooling of resources within the State.

PEReN is a centre of both technical specialisation and mutualisation. It capitalises on behalf of the State on skills and methods based on the latest knowledge, which it makes available to State services (since its creation in August 2020) and independent authorities (since the law of 25 October 2021) involved in the regulation of digital platforms. These departments and authorities can call on it directly to support their work in designing, implementing and evaluating this regulation. Their collaboration is formalised in agreements.

PEReN also aims to facilitate and coordinate the sharing of information, methods and source codes between its partners in the field of digital platform regulation, in conjunction with academia and civil society.

Digital platforms

The law of 21 May 2024 aimed at securing and regulating the digital space has extended the scope of services and operators covered by PEReN.

Initially based on the definition of ‘online platform operators’ provided for in the Consumer Code, this scope now includes

• providers of essential platform services within the meaning of the European Digital Markets Act (DMA) :
• online intermediation services (marketplaces, app stores, etc.),
• search engines,
• social networks,
• video sharing platforms,
• online messaging services,
• operating systems (including connected televisions),
• cloud computing services,
• online advertising services,
• browsers,
• virtual assistants.
• providers of online public communication services based on the processing of content, goods or services using computer algorithms, and providers of artificial intelligence systems (within the meaning of the European Regulation on Artificial Intelligence).

Research and experimental activities

Since the law of 25 October 2021, PEReN has been able to conduct public research activities within the meaning of the Public Research Code. It may also conduct experimental activities, based on the automatic collection of publicly available data, to design or evaluate digital tools whose sole purpose is to reflect on regulation.

Since the law of 21 May 2024, PEReN has been able, as part of its public research activities, to carry out automated collection of publicly accessible data. The conditions and procedures for automated collection, which are strictly necessary and proportionate, are specified in a decree issued by the Council of State after consultation with the CNIL.

PEReN, a cornerstone of INESIA, for safe AI

Established in 2025, the National Institute for the Evaluation and Security of Artificial Intelligence (INESIA) brings together the National Cybersecurity Agency ( ANSSI), the National Metrology and Testing Laboratory (LNE), the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology ( Inria) as a program agency in the digital sector, and PEReN. Its goal? To advance the science of evaluation and thus the security of AI, and to establish a sovereign public capacity for evaluating advanced AI systems, in the public interest.

INESIA mobilizes technical and interdisciplinary expertise to:

• analyze the behavior of AI systems;
• develop appropriate evaluation methods;
• support the implementation of the regulatory framework;
• contribute to the management of systemic risks.

It also facilitates exchanges between academia, government, industry, and civil society, in coordination with European and international initiatives.

The role of PEReN within INESIA
Within this consortium co-led by the General Secretariat for Defense and National Security (SGDSN) and the Directorate General for Enterprise (DGE), PEReN actively contributes to:

• developing assessment tools for regulators;
• testing the detection of artificial content under real-world conditions;
• analyzing systemic risks and agent-based systems;
• collaborating with the international network of AI Safety Institutes to harmonize practices and contribute to the development of a global evaluation framework.

Work already conducted in 2025

• As part of the Summit for Action on AI, Viginum and PEReN jointly conducted work on the detection of synthetic content;
• Together with Inria and the LNE, PEReN conducted joint testing exercises ofadvanced AI models andAI agents, as part of the international network of AI Safety Institutes.

Learn more

Discover INESIA, its 2026–2027 roadmap, and its work