Agence de l'innovation de défense - Theses AID classiques

What the AID doctoral funding gives you

You get funding for a full PhD in a field that matters to defence. It covers the standard three years of doctoral study, with the earliest start on 1 October 2026. The money comes as a grant from France's defence ministry to the lab that hosts you. More than 85% of selected theses are co-financed. This means the AID pays part and another organisation pays the rest, and your thesis director has to find that second funder. For a few priority, purely military topics, the AID can fund a thesis on its own. The funder is the Agence de l'innovation de défense (AID), which backs around 100 classic theses a year.

Who can apply

• Level: You are starting a doctorate (PhD).
• Field of study: Your research must fit one of the AID's priority defence topics, such as cybersecurity, robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, energy materials or the social sciences applied to defence.
• Nationality: You must be a national of an EU country, the United Kingdom or Switzerland. No exceptions.
• Where you study: You do the PhD at a French research lab, which receives the grant and hosts you.
• Who submits: Your thesis director applies for you. A project can be filed before a candidate is named, but naming one early helps.

How to apply

Your thesis director submits the project through the Démarche Numérique platform in a single round. The deadline is 16 March 2026. Before submitting, they must first contact the relevant AID innovation officer about the research topic, ideally by the end of February 2026. Results come out on 19 June 2026.

How realistic are your chances?

Around 100 classic theses are funded each year, and only defence-relevant fields and EU, UK or Swiss nationals qualify. So this is a focused programme, not a mass one. The bigger hurdle is practical: your thesis director needs a strong project, a solid lab and, for most theses, a second organisation willing to co-fund. If your research clearly fits a priority topic and your supervisor lines up the co-financing early, your prospects are good.