National Assembly (France) - French National Assembly research grants

Benefit

You will receive 1,685 EUR gross per month to undertake a doctoral thesis on the history of the French Parliament or on parliamentary law since the French Revolution. The scholarship is for a period of one year and may be extended twice, bringing the total duration to up to three years. Decisions on any extensions will be made after you have presented your thesis to the selection panel. The remuneration corresponds to the salary of a doctoral student on a fixed-term contract (doctorant contractuel) at a French university. You will also receive support from the National Assembly’s Library and Archives Service. The French National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) has been awarding this scholarship once a year since 2002.

Eligibility

• Level: You are just starting your PhD or have already begun it.
• Topic: Your dissertation examines the history of the French Parliament and French parliamentary law since the 1789 Revolution.
• Where you study: Your doctoral thesis is registered at a university or institution authorised to award doctoral degrees, and you are carrying out your research in France as part of the local graduate school.
• Age: It is the 30 of the month 1 of the year in which you are submitting your application.
• Nationality: Applicants of any nationality are welcome to apply. They simply need to carry out their research in France.

How to apply

Please request the application form from the archives department and return your documents as a PDF by email or on a CD/DVD by post. In recent years, the application deadline has been in the autumn, for example at the end of October. A panel comprising MPs and university professors then meets at the Palais Bourbon, conducts interviews with the candidates and selects the winner.

How realistic are your chances?

This scholarship is very narrowly defined: your doctoral thesis must focus on the history of the French Parliament or on French law, you must be younger than 30, and you must carry out your research in France. The pool of eligible applicants is therefore small. As only one person is selected each year, competition is extremely fierce, but a doctoral thesis on precisely this topic stands a real chance. Please note: there has been no documented new call for applications since 2017; you should therefore check whether the scholarship is still being awarded before counting on it.