Understanding the Research Framework

The doctorate constitutes a (Opens a new window) professional research experience. Doctoral candidates carry out original research work within the research laboratories that host them, as well as at other sites, for example where fieldwork is involved. They collaborate and exchange ideas with other researchers. They produce results, publish them, present them at national or international conferences, and so on.

It is essential to put a framework in place around these activities to address issues such as:

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Several frameworks have been designed specifically for the doctorate to address these various issues:

Other types of contracts or agreements may also be used, to accommodate the full diversity of situations encountered.

The doctoral candidate's remuneration

The question of remuneration for research work carried out within the laboratory must be addressed in the contract or agreement governing the doctoral candidate's placement within the laboratory.

Remuneration: find out more

For public-law doctoral contracts, remuneration is set by ministerial order. As of 1 January 2026, it stands at (Opens a new window) €2,300 gross per month. This amount serves as a benchmark for other types of contracts or agreements, such as Cifre, for which it constitutes the minimum level of remuneration.

It is also possible to prepare a doctorate without dedicated funding, alongside a main professional activity. This applies, for example, to doctoral candidates preparing their doctorate through continuing education, sometimes with several years of professional experience, on a part-time or full-time basis, while keeping their employment contract and salary, sometimes with adjustments.

Even where the doctoral candidate has no paid activity (a retired person, for example), their financial situation must be known and compatible with undertaking the doctorate. Whatever the situation, at the time of annual enrolment for the doctorate, the director of the doctoral school must ensure that (Opens a new window) the financial conditions are in place to allow the doctorate to proceed smoothly.

Their activities and duties

The employment contract, the research hosting agreement, or a collaboration agreement with the laboratory sets out the purpose of the doctoral candidate's work within the laboratory: preparing a doctorate on a given topic.

Preparing a doctorate involves, by default, a set of activities common to all doctoral candidates, ranging from carrying out the research work related to the thesis topic through to its defence, including collective doctoral training activities. These activities also include active participation in the life of the laboratory and of its scientific community, in particular through seminars, team meetings, symposia and conferences.

Where particular research arrangements are involved, specific clauses generally need to be included in the contract or agreement. This applies in particular to theses carried out in collaboration with a company, research work requiring fieldwork (in geology, oceanography, sociology, etc.) and/or extended periods abroad, and research requiring specific authorisations or ethical approval (medicine, education science, etc.).

Lastly, provided all conditions are met (for example, language proficiency for teaching, or a residence permit for setting up a business), the contract or agreement may also provide for additional duties, such as teaching (up to 64 hours of tutorials per year), science communication, expert advice or research exploitation activities.

Working conditions and environment

Where the doctoral candidate has an employment contract, their working conditions and environment are generally governed by employment law, as well as by sectoral agreements or specific frameworks applicable to the public and private sectors.

This covers, in particular, working time (statutory hours, schedules, etc.), leave management (annual leave, sick leave, maternity/paternity leave, etc.), management of travel and assignments, remote working arrangements, protection in the event of an accident at work, as well as access to services and facilities (catering, occupational health, digital working environment, etc.).

However, it may be necessary to supplement this framework in certain cases, for example where the employer differs from the institution that oversees the laboratory (for instance, for access to catering services or the digital working environment), for fieldwork (travel, accommodation, specific insurance, etc.), or where activities are planned across several sites (stays in a partner laboratory in France or abroad).

For doctoral candidates who do not have an employment contract for the preparation of their doctorate — for example, those preparing their thesis part-time alongside a main professional activity, or with no paid activity — these issues are not covered by default. Specific provisions must therefore be included in the agreement governing their placement in the laboratory, for example covering leave management, reimbursement of travel expenses (transport, accommodation, etc.), cover in the event of an accident occurring in the laboratory, access to laboratory services, and so on.

Publications and communications

The employment contract or agreement also governs the arrangements for publication and scientific communication of the doctoral candidate's work.

They do not communicate or publish in a personal capacity, but under the affiliation of their host laboratory, which engages the laboratory's scientific and institutional responsibility. This affiliation, for example, allows the doctoral candidate to call on (Opens a new window) official legal protection if they are subject to legal proceedings as a result of their research activities as part of their doctorate (theses dealing with sensitive issues, or involving fieldwork in sensitive countries, etc.). A prior approval process may be set out in the contract.

The agreement may also specify publication channels, whether or not any publication fees will be covered, citation rules for authors, the laboratory, funders or collaborators, arrangements for declaring conflicts of interest, rules on visual identity (logos, style guide), timeframes and arrangements for dissemination (embargo, deposit in open archives, etc.), or arrangements for reporting publications, to monitor the scientific output of the doctoral project's stakeholders.

These provisions aim to protect the interests of the doctoral candidate, their thesis supervisor, the laboratory and the other partners.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property depends on the framework under which the doctorate is prepared. The doctoral candidate always retains an inalienable moral right over their work (recognition of authorship, respect for the integrity of the work). Economic rights, however, are allocated differently depending on the framework. (Opens a new window) Economic rights are transferable and may be assigned to an operator.

Clarifying intellectual property over the research work carried out during the doctorate, the data collected and the results obtained is essential for any research exploitation activity, whether commercial or not, during or after the doctorate.

a) If the doctoral candidate has an employment contract dedicated to preparing the thesis, the employer holds the economic rights by default, although different arrangements may be made depending on the situation. For Cifre theses, for example, the collaboration agreement generally sets out an allocation of economic rights between the partners (employer, laboratory's supervisory bodies, etc.). In philanthropy agreements, it is specified that the sponsoring organisation does not claim economic rights over the research results.

b) Under a research stay agreement, economic rights over the research results may belong to the host laboratory, particularly where they result from the use of its resources (equipment, data, funding). In this case, this must be specified in the agreement.

c) Where the doctoral candidate is employed for a professional activity separate from their thesis, that employer does not have an automatic right to exploit the thesis results, unless a direct link exists between the professional activity and the research topic. A clause in the agreement between these parties allows intellectual property to be clarified in advance and helps avoid disputes.

Confidentiality and openness, archiving and protection of data and results

The contract or agreement governing the doctoral project generally includes confidentiality clauses, covering all the information that the doctoral candidate, as well as other participants in the doctoral project, may have access to during the project. This protects work not yet published, any patents, or sensitive or confidential information (for example, about people taking part as subjects in research projects) at the laboratory or a partner organisation. The contract or agreement may also provide for the thesis to be classified as confidential. In this case, the length of the confidentiality period must be specified and must be consistent with the nature of the information to be protected.

The contract or agreement may also provide for:

  • obligations to make results open and to disseminate them, including the use of open-source software for carrying out the work and writing the thesis, depositing publications, data and code in open archives (e.g. HAL, Zenodo), open dissemination of the thesis, and other provisions implementing the open science policies of the EU and the French State, as well as the requirements of funders (ANR, Horizon Europe),
  • obligations relating to the preservation and archiving of work in progress, research data and the thesis, which may include matters relating to the digital working environment (for example, back-up arrangements), the setting up of a data management plan, and the keeping of a laboratory notebook (or digital register), ensuring traceability of experiments, raw data, corpora and methods used, etc.
  • provisions for implementing the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) where the collection and/or processing of personal data is involved in the work, including the appointment of a data protection officer (DPO) and the implementation of secure protocols.

Professional ethics, scientific integrity and research ethics

Lastly, doctoral candidates are required to comply with the framework for responsible science. This includes:

  • Scientific integrity, which guarantees the honest and rigorous nature of research activities, from carrying out the work through to disseminating the results, and which is essential to the proper functioning of scientific communities and to society's trust in research,
  • Research ethics, which examines the potential consequences of research on people, society and the environment, on research subjects and researchers, from the objectives through to the work itself and any potential applications. Certain fields have specific ethical frameworks: research involving human participants, animal experimentation, personal data, research at sea, research on radioactive materials, etc.
  • Professional ethics (deontology), which refers to the obligations specific to the exercise of a profession, such as managing conflicts of interest, exercising academic freedoms, and the principles of secularism and neutrality in public service, etc.

These principles are governed by international and national texts, charters, laws, and national and internal regulations of universities, institutions, and host national research organizations. However, as with other matters, further detail may be needed to address particular cases in a collaboration agreement or contract.

Confidentiality Ethics Framework Intellectual property Research Research Ethics Scientific Integrity

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