Glossary
Collaborative R and D

CIFRE

The CIFRE scheme subsidizes any company incorporated under French law that hires a doctoral student to work in a research collaboration with a public laboratory. The work will culminate in a thesis to be defended within three years. The aim of the CIFRE scheme is to encourage the development of public-private research partnerships, and to place PhD students in conditions of employment. It is based on the association of four players. The company recruits a Master's-level graduate on a permanent or fixed-term contract, entrusting him/her with a strategic research mission for its socio-economic development. The salary cannot be lower than a minimum amount (generally more than €20,000 gross per year). The work will be the subject of the PhD student's thesis. The academic research laboratory supervises the work of the employee-doctoral fellow, and as such, the...