Call for applications: specific doctoral contracts for Normaliens

Application process
Step 1: Finding your thesis topic

For most of you, the subject of your doctorate, which is the subject of CDSN funding, will arise from an encounter with a researcher or teacher-researcher, within your teaching and research departments (DER), in Master 1 or Master 2 courses, during a stay in a laboratory in France or abroad, after a seminar....

As part of the CDSN 2023 campaign, thesis topics will also be made available progressively with a view to CDSN funding by researchers and teacher-researchers at the University of Paris-Saclay.

• Consult the ADUM website of the University of Paris-Saclay. (in french)

It is also possible to consult CDSN topics from previous years, or past or current PhD topics. The contacts that may follow may lead you to build a new topic.

• See the CDSN topics from previous years.

Please note that a prior deposit of the subject on one site or another is not essential. The submission through ADUM in the framework of this programme is a possibility that is offered to HDRs to give visibility to their subject. It is in no way an obligation.

Étape 2 : déposer son sujet de thèse

• Create and access the ADUM application space.
   
• See the step-by-step explanation of how to create an ADUM normalien-ne ENS account. (in french)

The subject is composed of a set of fields including a title, a summary, a context, the approach envisaged and the work planned during the first and second years. The candidate is also invited to add any element useful to the understanding and evaluation of the subject (details of the supervision, state of the art, means made available, a list of bibliographic references showing the work of the supervisory team).
The development of the thesis subject is the result of an exchange between the student and the thesis director, who is in principle responsible for the thesis subject.

Step 3: Putting together and submitting your application

You must submit your application via the same ADUM interface.

• Consultez l'explication pas-à-pas du dépôt de candidature CDSN.

The final action consists in submitting a global document in PDF format containing the elements relating to the candidate, namely

• The transcript of grades of the four years of ENS (or L3 + 3 years of ENS)
• A Curriculum Vitae
• A letter of motivation
• A statement of your ENS Paris-Saclay diploma (validated or, if it is in the process of being validated, to be detailed) and the ADN screen copy
• A letter of recommendation from a person outside the thesis direction
• An extended summary of the thesis subject

And also documents attesting to the commitment of the thesis director, the laboratory and the host doctoral school (to be downloaded beforehand and printed).

• Notice from the laboratory management
• Opinion of the doctoral school management
• Opinion of the thesis director: summary of the thesis subject, detailed subject and administrative file, signed by the thesis director

It is the responsibility of the Department of Teaching and Research (DER) to supervise and support the preparation of all applications from Normaliens within its scope.
The department's management is responsible for advising and guiding candidates on their research subject, choice of direction and laboratory of destination, while ensuring the territorial distribution of all applications. It is the responsibility of the candidates to keep their departmental directorate regularly informed of the progress of their application. The heads of the teaching and research departments, having an overall view of the applications under their responsibility, provide the CDSN allocation committee with a reasoned opinion on each application.

The doctoral officer will answer any questions relating to the application process.

Criteria for assessing the application and selection

The CDSN attribution commission is composed of :

• The VP Research of ENS Paris-Saclay
• The VP training of ENS Paris-Saclay
• The doctoral project manager

The allocation committee relies on the opinion of the DER directors, the doctoral school directors and on that of external experts appointed for their skills in the research fields concerned. In consultation with the DER management, the committee ensures that the CDSNs are distributed over the various fields of the discipline and throughout the territory.

The committee classifies the NSDC application files into 3 categories:

• A: selected project
• B: project on the complementary list
• C: project not selected

The assessment of the application file is based in particular on the coherence of the thesis project with the career of the student at ENS Paris-Saclay, and on the quality of the thesis director and the host research unit. The commission ensures that the files are distributed according to the territorial distribution of the CDSN, and in particular their multi-year distribution by research unit.