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The geologist Charles Jacob was appointed head of the CNRS in August 1940. The Vichy regime had decided to maintain and even reinforce the CNRS but with a significant change in its way functioning. Jacob imposed an authoritarian pyramidal system at all levels and transposed the cult of the leader (crucial in the Vichy system) to the CNRS. At the local level, it is possible to retrace the stakeholders, determining factors and decisions that led to the creation of the CRSIM laboratory (Centre de Recherches Scientifiques, Industrielles et Maritimes) in Marseille in 1941, the first CNRS laboratory set up outside Paris and the surrounding region. It resulted from the reorganization of the Toulon Navy laboratory that was disbanded in the aftermath of the armistice agreements. The CRSIM was created by the physicist François Canac, who had been the main scientific energy in Toulon and was a close acquaintance of Admiral Darlan. This gave one of Canac’s relatives, Fernand Ozil, the opportunity to develop mathematical research on “a process for identifying human profiles”. This case study focuses on the networks and forms of collaboration within the CNRS under the Vichy regime.