Share the page
Cifre PhD: A Specific Mechanism for Doctoral Students
Are you a doctoral student, and would you like to benefit from the Cifre mechanism to join AFD while you prepare your PhD? AFD publishes two to three calls for applications a year.
You will find all the necessary information on this page to understand the mechanism and apply for our Cifre offers.
The Cifre (“Industrial Agreements for Training through Research”) mechanism allows companies registered under French law to recruit a doctoral student whose research project, conducted in collaboration with a public laboratory, will lead to the defence of a thesis. Cifre agreements are financed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovations which has entrusted their implementation to the ANRT.
Depending on its needs, every year AFD defines themes for calls for applications for Cifre PhD and finances between one and three theses a year.
The calls for applications are competitive and published online on AFD's recruitment portal.
The Cifre doctoral students financed by AFD work at AFD’s headquarters and not in foreign countries (they may carry out short missions).
Useful links
AFD will not reply to unsolicited applications. The procedure is to reply to the calls for applications published on AFD’s website.
AFD publishes between one and three calls for applications a year, at different dates depending on its needs.
There are no nationality or age requirements to apply.
No, in order for candidates to receive equal treatment, they must not contact AFD’s reception structure directly. The call for applications is competitive.
Your application is a response to the call for applications, but it is not the project for a complete PhD thesis, which will be developed at a later stage with your research director.
No, it is the doctoral student who applies to a research center/host laboratory. Before submitting their application to AFD, they must contact a doctoral school and obtain a commitment letter to conduct their PhD thesis in this school. This letter must be attached to your application.
The host laboratory of the doctoral student must be based in France, but a co-supervision is possible between a research laboratory based in France and another laboratory based abroad.
No. After AFD’s selection, the application is sent to the ANRT, which has it assessed by specialists. It can take two to six months between the selection of the application by AFD and the start of the thesis.