FIRE applications are open to ambitious candidates addressing the challenges of our time from a fresh perspective and having a scientific background or a different area of expertise.
Candidates must complete this online application form whether or not they have identified or even secured funding for their PhD salary (doctoral contract from the University, CIFRE, European program, ANR, etc.)
Master degree or equivalent; this typically includes 5 years of higher education
Unconventional interdisciplinary projects (questions and/or approaches that are novel for the hosting labs) – see some examples of PhD projects
Strong background of the student in at least one of the disciplines relevant to the PhD project
Cosupervision with at least one of the hosting labs in the Paris region
Contribution to the implementation of the SDGs
Application opens: 7th February 2025
Application deadline: 4th April 2025 at 23:59 (Paris time)
Pre-selection results: Early may, 2025
Interviews: 2rd - 6th June 2025
Eligible candidates with confirmed funding are admitted (personal funding, lab funding or FIRE funding): June-September 2025
First mandatory workshop for FIRE students: early September 2025
The FIRE PhD program is supported by several partner institutions that offer fellowships to students according to their ranking after the interviews. These include fellowships from the Universities (doctoral contracts), EURIP, INRA, ITMO Cancer and Servier.
Since the doctoral school and its partners are not able to support all the eligible candidates, students and their supervisors are encouraged to apply for funding available from other institutions and organizations (see below).
Candidates that have already secured funding are also interviewed by the International Scientific Committee to determine their eligibility for the FIRE PhD program.
Paris region PhD 2025: La Région soutient l'emploi scientifique en lien avec les besoins des entreprises en cofinançant des allocations doctorales. Sont éligibles des projets portant sur un Domaine d’intérêt majeur et associant un laboratoire et une entreprise.
Application available until April 14th, 2025.
See more information here.
The Université de Paris that hosts the FIRE PhD program has listed many sources of possible funding for a PhD in France.
The iEDU has published a summary of diverse funding opportunities on its website and offers a newsletter to keep informed. Listed fundings concern Master or PhD students, postdocs, researchers, etc.
International fellowships of Université de Paris. 42-month PhD contract, including a budget envelope for international mobility, for PhD students who didn't spend more than 1 year in France during the last 3 years. A list of the subjects is given by the University.
Application between February and March last year, new dates for 2021 will be added soon..
See more information here.
Doctoral contract FRM: the doctoral school can propose 1 PhD subject dedicated to any research topic in Biology or Health sciences. Please contact us and send online your FIRE application (the candidate letters and the recommendation letters could be provided later) before March 12th, 2025 if you wish to apply.
The FRM also offers the "Prix de thèse en cardiologie Béziat-Rouanet". The doctoral school can propose 1 candidate whose PhD subject is related to any cardiac or vascular pathology. The application procedure is the same as for the FRM doctoral contract.
Please note that one candidate can only apply to the "Contrat doctoral FRM" OR to the "Prix de thèse en cardiologie Béziat-Rouanet".
The Pasteur Paris-University (PPU) international doctoral program offers financial support to PhD candidates who didn't study, work or reside in France for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to their recruitment.
The call is open every year in September, the year before the wished start of the PhD.
See more information here.
The Fondation pour l'Audition offers PhD grants to French to ORL medical interns, graduated speech-language pathologists and audioprosthesists.
Application aivailable until January 27th, 2020.
See more information here.
The Fondation Vaincre Alzheimer offers PhD grants for basic, translational and clinical research that studies the underlying mechanisms of, and possible therapeutic treatments for (specific) dementia(s).
Application aivailable until January 31st, 2020.
See more information here.
The Association Huntington France offers one PhD grants for research dedicated to the Huntington disease.
Application aivailable until April 1st, 2020.
See more information here.
Campus France – Bourses d’Excellence Eiffel. Grants for 18 months maximum for non-French PhD students doing their PhD in co-direction with France.
Application available until January 8th. For 2026, application will open again in October 2025.
See more information here.
The City of Paris, through CIFRE (industrial conventions for research) contracts, hosts PhD students whose reserarch topics are related to challenges the city is facing. All the disciplines are eligible. A list of particularly important questions for the City has been established but is not limiting the subjects that could be proposed.
Application available until March 10th, 2020.
See more information here.
The French Ministery of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, in partnership with l'Institut des Amériques, offer several doctoral contracts (for a PhD starting in 2021 and finishing in 2024) for projects between a French university and one of the following in America:
Application available until March 2nd, 2020.
See more information here.
Inria and Inserm fund between 2 and 4 doctoral contracts for PhD students co-supervised in these two institutions, on a subject related to Digital health. The project must include a digital or applied mathematics dimension (modelling, simulation, analysis, learning...) on the Inria side, and a biomedical question from the Inserm side.
Application is open until May 14th, 2021. It has to be sent directly to contact-theses-inserm-inria@inria.fr.
See more information here.
The French national program PAUSE is funding 3 doctoral contrats for students who start a PhD in France because they are in danger and forced into exile.
Are eligible: students who were not enrolled yet in a PhD in France and who didn't start a PhD in their home country more than one year ago.
Application is open until April, 13th, 2021.
See more information here.
C-BRAINS international PhD program neuroscience & cognitive science in Ile-de-France. Open to students who are currently enrolled in a Master program outside France.
Application deadline: January 29, 2024.
See more information here.
Cité du Genre is offering a doctoral contract (2023-2026) to support research topics addressing gender inequalities thanks to crossed approaches in Social sciences and Humanities (e.g. sociology, psychology, history, language sciences, education sciences...) and Natural Sciences (e.g. neurosciences, digital sciences, mathematics, chemistry...).
Deadline to submit a research thematics: January 15th, 2023.
See more information here.
The Marion Elizabeth Brancher Funds financially supports research, both fundamental or applied, on stem cells in the cardiac or vascular domains. It delivers PhD and postdoctoral grants in addition to the Marion Elizabeth Brancher Prize.
Deadline to submit an application: March 29th, 2024.
See more information here.
The "Women's Health, Couples' Health" Priority Research Program and Equipment is designed to enable the implementation of the research actions set out in the National Strategy to Combat endometriosis and in the Report on the Causes of Infertility . This program is designed to support research into the fundamental mechanisms involved, as well as clinical, epidemiological and human and social science research, and to pave the way for key innovations in this field.
Deadline to submit an application: May 15th, 2024.
See more information here.
ADEME (Agency for the ecological transitions) launches a 2025 call for PhD applications in one of the following fields:
For the PhD, a 50% cofunding is required.
Deadline to submit an application: March 24th, 2025.
See more information here.
The following sources may be of interest to students and labs who are looking for funding sources.
Université de Paris: list of fundings
iEUD: list of fundings
Région Île-de-France
Ville de Paris - CIFRE
Campus France – Bourses d’Excellence Eiffel
Cité du Genre
Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM)
Pasteur Paris-University (PPU)
ADEME
Inria-Inserm PhD on Digital health
Fondation pour l'Audition
Fondation Vaincre Alzheimer
Association Huntington France
Programme PAUSE for scientists in exile
DIM C-BRAINS International PhD program
Fonds Marion Elizabeth BRANCHER - Stem cells
PEPR Santé des femmes, santé des couples
Few individual studios on the campus may be available for fellows under 30 years old.
No. However, we expect you will be actively involved in mentoring students at all levels. We also encourage you to do occasional teaching in undergraduate, master or PhD courses, and generally be involved in the Learning Planet Institute’s education and outreach activities.
Some of the FIRE PhD students do their research in the lab hosted at the Learning Planet Institute (UMR 1284) but most of them work with external labs.
You can write to us at firephd@learningplanetinstitute.org.
