evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

CIFRE — France's 44-Year Industrial PhD Convention Linking Firms and Labs

France · Paris · See the France profile · See the Paris profile

Evidence: Quasi-experimental Top 17% 81/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since 1981, France's CIFRE scheme has subsidised firms to employ PhD candidates split between the company and a public lab. A Céreq study found CIFRE graduates get stable jobs faster and earn more — though access still skews toward engineering and chemistry.

14,000 EUR/year, tax-exempt
Annual government subsidy per company per CIFRE doctoral candidate
~600 (c.1990) growing to ~1,450
New CIFRE conventions per year (by 2019)
9,000+
Cumulative companies involved since 1981
4,000+
Cumulative research laboratories involved since 1981
25,000+
Cumulative doctoral students since 1981
28% (CIFRE) vs 44% (non-CIFRE)
Graduates on a temporary contract immediately after graduation
9% (CIFRE) vs 28% (non-CIFRE)
Graduates still on a temporary contract three years after graduation

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
ANRT (Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie)
Period
1981–present
Keywords
R&D, higher education, industry-academia partnerships, doctoral training

Context

Created in 1981 and administered by ANRT on behalf of France's Ministry of Higher Education and Research, CIFRE subsidises a private company to employ a doctoral candidate who splits their time between the firm and a partner public or private research laboratory while completing a thesis.

Objectives

Link firms and academic research laboratories through a subsidised, tripartite (state–firm–lab) doctoral placement, growing the pipeline of industry-embedded PhD researchers.

Activities

ANRT administers applications and disburses the €14,000/year, tax-exempt company subsidy; a strategic-orientation committee and a dedicated evaluation and monitoring committee oversee the scheme.

Results

Annual new conventions grew from roughly 600 (c.1990) to about 1,450 by 2019 (28% in humanities and social sciences); cumulatively since 1981 the scheme has involved 9,000+ companies, 4,000+ laboratories and 25,000+ doctoral students. A Céreq propensity-score-matched study found CIFRE graduates reach stable employment faster (28% vs 44% on temporary contracts immediately after graduation; 9% vs 28% after three years) and report higher earnings than comparable non-CIFRE PhD holders.

Conclusions

The matched-comparison evidence on employment outcomes is unusually strong for this batch of practices, but access remains skewed toward engineering and chemical-science candidates, with humanities, law and economics students documented as facing more difficulty securing a placement.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
ANRT (Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie) administers the scheme on behalf of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, A strategic-orientation committee and a dedicated evaluation and monitoring committee provide governance, Doctoral candidate is jointly supervised by the host company and a partner public or private research laboratory

Conditions for success

  • A standing, tax-exempt annual per-candidate subsidy (currently €14,000) that removes most of the direct cost barrier for hosting companies
  • A formal tripartite convention that fixes obligations between the state, the firm and the laboratory

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Replication kit

Reusable artefacts from this practice — as published by their sources.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Similar practices you may find useful

★ 86

EPFL Innovation Park

Switzerland

The EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne houses 250 high-tech companies and 2,500 researchers, enabling structured university–industry knowledge transfer. EPFL-related startups …