Corrosion is the responsible for early materials and components failure. Surface protection and understanding of the corrosion processes, including the detrimental role of Hydrogen, are crucial to mitigate corrosion-induced damages. Amongst our activities important progresses have been made in the field of self-healing coatings, including novel biobased coatings, for corrosion protection in collaboration with several international partners. Car bodies are made of painted electrogalvanized steel sheet, in which a few microns of zinc provide sacrificial protection to steel, in a versatile solution for lightweight weldable structures. At the cut edge, however, bimetallic corrosion causes delamination of the organic coating, in a process called "cosmetic corrosion". In collaboration with European steel producers, these processes have been studied at the microscale, using advanced (electro)chemical techniques.