CIFRE Theses

• An opportunity for companies, local and regional governments, and NGOs based in France to grow, regardless of their size;
• Collaborative theses between a partner and an academic research institution;
• Scientific and technical support from an academic thesis advisor;
• Ph.D. students recruited by a company or a local government entity (in permanent or fixed-term contracts), with financial support from the National Association for Research and Technology (ANRT);
• A simple procedure with a high success rate: 100% at AgroParisTech; 90% in France.

You, our partners, giving you an opportunity to:

• Access expertise that is not available in-house;
• Benefit from high-level scientific expertise at a low cost;
• Receive quality results focused on technological innovation, either directly through the thesis itself or via technology transfer;
• Identify future executives who have received the highest level of education;
• Maintain an industry-specific pool of talent.

Our Ph.D. students and faculty:

• CIFRE theses offer an opportunity to approach the world of business and government and to pursue a career there;
• Ph.D. students can access high-performance equipment through their industrial partners;
• CIFRE theses attract excellent Ph.D. students who earn higher average salaries than most other Ph.D. students and enjoy broader career prospects.

Applications are quick and easy to prepare, and include:

• An overview of the laboratory and the company or government entity;
• A presentation of the candidate. Candidates must not have been recruited by the company or government entity for more than 9 months;
• Three formal letters of commitment (from the partner’s authorized representative, the head of the academic institution, and the head of the doctoral school),
• A free-form description of the research project (three to five pages).

The ANRT will take approximately three months to process the application.