Société Française d'Exobiologie - SFE Doctoral Dissertation Award

SFE Doctoral Dissertation Award

You will receive a one-off cash prize of 1,000 EUR for an outstanding doctoral thesis in the field of exobiology, the science that studies the origins of life and the question of whether life could exist elsewhere in the universe. In addition to the prize money, the French Society for Exobiology (Société Française d’Exobiologie, SFE) will cover your registration fee for the national exobiology conference, at which you will present your work. The prize is awarded every two years.

Who can apply

• Degree: You completed your PhD at a French university, with the defence of your thesis taking place around two to three years before the award process.
• Field: Your dissertation focuses on exobiology or astrobiology. It examines the origin of life, its early development or its possible existence elsewhere in the universe.
• Nationality: Applicants of any nationality are welcome to apply. What matters is that you hold a French PhD, not your background.
• Nomination: You must be nominated by a full, paying SFE member, such as your supervisor. You do not need to be an SFE member yourself. If you do not have a nominator, you can ask a full member to nominate you.

How to apply

The SFE member nominating you must email the documents by 15 June. This deadline is binding. The documents must include your CV, the composition of your dissertation committee, the assessment reports, the minutes of the defence and a copy of your dissertation. Each submission will be examined by one external and one internal reviewer before the SFE Executive Committee discusses and assesses it.

How realistic are your chances?

This award is very narrowly defined. Only French doctoral theses in the field of exobiology that have been defended in recent years and have been nominated by an SFE member are eligible to enter, so the pool of candidates is small. If your doctoral thesis fits into this niche and you can secure a full member of the SFE to nominate you, your chances are really good. Securing a nominator at an early stage is the real hurdle, not the competition itself.