PhD Fundings, an overview

Funding for a PhD can come from several sources, be shared among several entities, and the PhD student's employer (the one who signs the contract) is not always the funder (the one who provides the funds). The main funders are:

The French government

The French government is the main funder of PhD projects in France and finances doctoral projects through:

• doctoral contracts awarded by public higher education and research institutions through their doctoral schools,
• research funding allocated to research organisations (CNRS, INSERM, etc.), the National Research Agency (ANR), and France 2030 — including, for example, the Priority Research Programs (PEPR) — and through specific programs (DGA, CNES, National Gendarmerie)
• funding for international doctoral students as part of French diplomatic efforts,
• the Cofra (Conventions for training through research in administration) which concern research projects responding to problems of State administrations (ministries, national agencies, etc.).

Local authorities

Most regions, certain departments and even certain municipalities, finance or co-finance doctoral projects or research funding programs to finance doctoral students, particularly in strategic areas (ecological transition, innovation) or responding to territorial issues (coastal, mountains, culture and heritage).

Local authorities can make use of the Cifre scheme.

Health insurance, healthcare sector

Doctoral projects may be funded by health insurance and the healthcare sector through programs administered by "Santé Publique France", regional health agencies, and public hospitals.

These institutions may grant special arrangements to doctors, pharmacists, physical therapists, and others to pursue a part-time doctoral degree on projects that address both the hospital’s research needs and the training requirements for future hospital-university staff.

Businesses and organizations

Doctoral projects can be funded through CIFRE (Industrial Agreements for Research Training), which are supported by a government grant and the research tax credit; through funding for chairs or collaborative research programs; or through sponsorship (doctoral sponsorship, with a payment to the laboratory enabling the recruitment of a doctoral student, or skills-based sponsorship, where a company or association makes staff available to assist with a thesis).

They may also grant flexible work schedules to current employees so they can pursue a part-time doctorate.

Foundations

Some foundations (such as the Foundation for Medical Research or the Fondation de France) fund doctoral project on specific topics.

This funding is often awarded on a case-by-case basis and may supplement other sources of income.

International organizations

• European Commission Programmes (Horizon Europe, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships),
• International organisations funding research projects that address their specific issues (OECD, UN, WHO, BIPM...),

Foreign government, International partners

• Scholarships offered by partner countries (DAAD scholarships for Germany, Fulbright scholarships for the United States, etc.)
• International Partnerships (e.g., international joint supervision of doctoral projects): Funding or co-funding from foreign universities, foreign research organizations, or foreign companies.

A doctoral project is an investment in the future, both in terms of producing research results and training a future PhD holder, and therefore requires resources — for both research and training — that are generally shared among several stakeholders.

Before proposing enrollment in the first year of a doctoral program, the doctoral school administration must verify that the scientific, material and financial conditions are met to ensure the smooth progress of the doctoral student's research and preparation for the doctorate.

This includes the following areas:

• The doctoral candidate's remuneration. This is the most important part of the funding, with amounts that can vary depending on whether it is a public law doctoral contract, a private law doctoral contract, a scholarship for foreign doctoral students, or a work-schedule adjustment granted to an employee to pursue a doctoral degree on a part-time basis,
• Generic costs related to research work (or indirect costs). These are the environmental costs associated with hosting a doctoral student on a campus and in a research laboratory: access to general services (cafeteria, digital services, health services, etc.), provision of a workstation, office equipment and digital services, travel expenses, costs of accessing relevant scientific literature, mobilisation of support staff, and other generic research and laboratory operating costs. When it comes to a collaborative doctoral project (e.g., a CIFRE thesis), hosting the doctoral student at two different sites must be arranged.
• Generic training costs (or indirect costs). This includes the mobilization of a thesis supervisor and, more broadly, a scientific environment, the costs related to the organization of doctoral training and its monitoring (operation of the doctoral school, mobilization of an admissions committee, individual monitoring committees, reviewers and defense juries, graduation and publication of the thesis, etc.), the cost of mandatory doctoral training modules (research ethics and scientific integrity, open science, etc.).
• Specific research costs. These costs depend directly on the thesis topic and can vary considerably between theoretical and experimental, clinical, or field work. They may include costs for consumables, software, computing time, access to databases, research infrastructure and instruments, research equipment, the working time of support staff and experts, fieldwork, cohort or clinical study costs, and other specific research costs.
• Specific training costs. Prior training may be required in certain specific cases for the doctoral student to obtain the necessary authorisations to carry out certain experiments (e.g., animal experimentation), to access certain sites or equipment (e.g., authorisation to work in an ionised environment) or certain fields (e.g., deep-water explorations).

Sources of funding

In the 2023-2024 academic year, among doctoral students enrolled in the first year of their doctoral program and receiving funding:

• 40.8% have funding allocated, via a doctoral school, by a university or by a higher education and research institution under the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space (MESRE), on its public service charge subsidy.
• 16.9% had funding from a research organization. This funding came from the recurring budgets of these organizations allocated by the MESRE or from projects and programs managed by these organizations (France 2030, ANR, Horizon Europe).
• 9.9% are funded through a CIFRE agreement, which promotes collaborative research. It should be noted that the CIFRE program is open to businesses, associations, and local authorities.
• 6.2% are financed by a local authority (excluding Cifre).
• 10.6% have funding for foreign doctoral students. This funding is the only type that can be in the form of scholarships.
• Finally, 15.5% have other funding. This may include research training agreements in administration (Cofra), sponsorship, funding for projects and programs managed by universities and higher education and research institutions, and other sources.

The total cost of a doctoral program can vary greatly depending on the circumstances of the program, the thesis topic, and the nature of the proposed research.

The various costs (remuneration of the doctoral student, research, training and management costs) are generally shared between several actors (funder(s), research laboratory(ies), doctoral registration institution(s)), with distributions that vary according to the funding programs and mechanisms and research collaborations.

French and European public programs to support collaborative research and tax incentives (see CIFRE, (Opens a new window) CIR, (Opens a new window) CICO, doctoral sponsorship) can be utilised and significantly reduce the budgets required from each partner to fund a doctoral project.

The amounts below are indicative.

Key Points

• In 2026, the gross cost, including charges, over 3 years, of the remuneration of a doctoral contract is around €130,000.
• Indirect costs, also called environmental costs (generic costs for hosting, research, and training), can be estimated using a fixed multiplier applied to the gross cost including remuneration. This factor is derived from the organisation's financial statements and typically ranges from 0.4 to 0.8. If the project is carried out as part of a partnership, management fees, typically ranging from 15% to 25%, are applied to share these indirect costs between the partners.

French Industrial Doctorate Programme (CIFRE)

Doctorate in Administration(Cofra)

The "Disability" Doctoral Contract Program

Corporate Philanthropy

The France Excellence Eiffel scholarship program

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA - European Commission)