COFUND project, dedicated to PhD funding between France and Australia
Deadline for applications: 22 November 2021
A project is under preparation for sumbission to the European program Marie Skłodowska-Curie and fund more than 50 cotutelle PhDs between France and Australia. Every French and Australian research organisation will be eligible and every engineering science fields (fundamental, applied...) will be considered!
How does it work?
Selection of collaborative research topics: Pairs of CNRS and collaborating Australian academics will identify joint research topics that can be advertised to attract top-quality Doctoral candidates. All topics must involve a non-academic supporting partner to ensure industrial/societal impact. Pairs of partners must state their common interest with an Intention statement before 22 November (see Interest declaration below). Then, partners must agree on finance aspect and recruitment processes of the proposal (see below supervisor profile file).
Candidate selection: French and Australian partners will jointly organise rounds of global recruitment for the entire project
Employment: Once selected, the Doctoral Candidates will be directly employed by CNRS or French universities and in parallel will enroll in both French and Australian universities, thereby leading to every Doctoral Candidate being awarded two degrees.
Secondments and training: The Doctoral Candidates will spend 6-12 months on secondment at their Australian university during their PhD, funded by the project. Each year, DCs and supervisors will gather for a week of transversal training workshops, which will be organised locally (i.e., in France or Australia) to minimise international travel.
Funding: EU funds will cover a large part of the salaries. The shortfall and additional costs for secondments, trainings, research costs and university fees, must be collectively borne by the partners.
Benefit for the partners:
Leveraged investment: EU funds will cover about 80% of the salary costs. Partners will cover the short fall plus research, training and travel costs. This represents a high rate of return (e.g. 1:4) for each partner.
International talent attraction: The European program requires global recruitment. The features of the project (double degree, travel to Australia, industry/societal involvement, etc) will help attract top talent from around the world.
Societal impact: Through strong involvement of industrial/societal partners in all the projects, research outcomes will have societal impact. Also, long-lasting links between the research communities will be nurtured through the twice-annual workshops.
Freedom of research topics: There is complete freedom to define research topics bottom up, with topics determined by the academics in consultation with their supporting industry/societal partners.
Calendar
Download the Interest declaration
Download the supervisor profile
Contacts for information and applications:
Christian Grillet: christian.grillet@ec-lyon.fr
Jean-Paul Toutain: Jean-Paul.TOUTAIN@cnrs.fr