National Association for Research in Technology (ANRT) - CIFRE- Industrial Agreements for Research Training

CIFRE Industrial Agreements for Research Training

You will be offered a paid post as a PhD student in France. The salary is at least 2,300 EUR gross per month (27,600 EUR gross per year from 2026) for the entire duration of your PhD, which is three years. A company, an association or a local authority will employ you on a proper employment contract. You will divide your working hours between this employer and an academic research laboratory. Your PhD topic will correspond to the research work required by your employer. The programme is run by the ANRT (a French agency linking research and industry) on behalf of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. The Ministry pays your employer an annual subsidy of 14,000 EUR towards your salary.

Who can apply

• Degree: You must hold a Master’s degree (or an equivalent qualification) at the time the contract commences.
• Not yet a PhD holder: You do not yet hold a doctorate. Exceptions to this are healthcare professions such as medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and veterinary medicine.
• Field of study: Open to all fields of research, with the exception of health sciences.
• Timing: At the time the application was received by the ANRT, you had not been employed on this research project nor enrolled in the PhD programme for more than 9 months.
• Nationality: Applicants of all nationalities are welcome to apply; there is no age limit.
• Where you work: Your employer is based in France, and your main research laboratory is affiliated with a French doctoral school. It is possible to be supervised by a second laboratory, including one based abroad, as part of a joint supervision arrangement.
• No conflict of interest: You do not currently hold a managerial position with the employer applying for the grant, nor have you held such a position in the past.

How to apply

The application is submitted by your employer via the ANRT online platform, not by you. There is no fixed deadline, so applications can be submitted throughout the year. An independent expert reviews the documents, after which a committee makes a decision each month. You will receive a decision within three months of submitting the complete documentation.

How realistic are your chances?

The real hurdle is not the competition for a fixed budget, but finding an employer who is willing to take you on and submit the application, as you cannot apply yourself. If you already have a company in mind and a research project that suits both the employer and an academic laboratory, your chances are good. The programme is being expanded to around 2,150 agreements per year, and applications are assessed individually rather than being evaluated against one another. Around 2,000 new agreements are signed each year, and since 1981, more than 30,000 PhD students have been trained.