2021 PhD Funding Campaign

As a doctoral student at Université Côte d'Azur, you will be provided with a very high-quality hosting environment:

• Attractive salary: doctoral candidates will get a net salary of ~1947 € as monthly living allowance (annual gross ~40,7 k€) please notice this amount may change according to regulatory changes that may occur between now and the beginning of the contract and throughout the contract). In addition, the fellows will get additional money for conference travel and professional equipment.

• Excellent research environment including international-renowned laboratories with long-standing practices for leading doctoral projects and the lab/industry cross-fertilization in Nice-Sophia Antipolis, the fast-paced European largest technopark.
• Interdisciplinary research options as cross-domain vision lies at the heart of the Digital Systems for Humans Graduate school project.
• International networking: researchers from dozens of different nationalities work together in our laboratories and almost 70% of the PhD students are foreigners. Moreover, Université Côte d'Azur is co-founder of the UlyssEUs European University Alliance and a strategic partner of the University Laval, Canada. Read more about UCA worldwide...
• PhD support programs: DocWalker (mobility) and Icare (conference travel and equipment).
• Minors: Optional courses to open to new domains (no prerequisites needed): Digital Business with SKEMA business school, Entrepreneurship, Digital IP & Law, Smart EdTechs... that help boosting your career and employability.
• Individual support from Université Côte d'Azur Welcome Center and PhD Study Center (housing, administrative procedures, child-care solutions, newcomers meetups...).
• Active Student association DS4H ADAMS (Digital Systems for Humans Association of Doctoral and Master’s Students): academic and unifying events, after school peer learning meetings, parties…
• ... and the world-envied French Riviera quality of life!

As a PhD student

Application deadline: May, 9th

To apply, simply choose a subject in the list at the bottom of this page (regularly enriched until May 2).

• If the subject belong to the Human and Social Sciences area: please send an e-mail to the thesis director with a CV attached.
• For all other areas: use this form to contact the corresponding thesis director.

The director will then select the student (s)he will support, prepare the application file and the audition with him/her, and submit the application file to DS4H Graduate school.

If you are selected, you will have to register to the doctoral school corresponding to your subject:

• Doctoral school of Information and Communication Sciences and Technologies (ED STIC)
• Doctoral school of Humanities and Social Sciences (ED DESPEG).
• Doctoral School of Societies, Humanities, Arts and Literature (ED SHAL)

As a PhD supervisor

Application deadline: May, 18th

PhD supervisors apply for DS4H fundings after having selected a PhD candidate on a PhD given topic.

Folders submitted by the potential PhD supervisors should contain :

• A description of the chosen PhD subject
• The candidate’s CV 
• Letter of motivation from the candidate
• If the master is still in progress: the transcripts of at least Master 1 and the first semester of Master 2 (or equivalent) with, if available, the rankings among the master, and a scientific description of the current research internship
• Else: the Master diploma, a complete transcript of the Master 2 or equivalent, and the dissertation with at least a summary in French or English
• A letter of the potential PhD supervisor with commitment to supervise the candidate, a description of the knowledge (s)he has of the candidate, and why (s)he chose this candidate on this subject
• Optionally : recommendation letters and any document likely to support the quality of the triplet

How to submit a PhD subject?

Before May, 2nd:

• Human and Social Sciences area: please refer to the e-mail from Gilles Bernot, dated March 29th.
• Other areas: please refer to the e-mail from Claire Migliaccio, dated March 17th.

An additional allowance of 10 K€ will be allocated by DS4H Graduate school to subjects submitted before April, 12th.

The DS4H jury evaluates and ranks candidate/subject/supervision triplets, taking into account the thematic priorities and scientific scope of DS4H Graduate school.

It assigns rapporteurs who organise a audition of the student in the presence of the potential supervisor (videoconferencing allowed).

The jury evaluates and ranks the applications, i.e. the student/subject/supervisor triplets, on the basis of the following criteria :

• the quality of the student’s academic background and its relevance with respect to the proposed subject and doctoral supervision
• the scientific maturity of the student and the potential impact of the PhD at the end of the 3 years
• the smooth functioning of the triplet, assessable in particular through the joint preparation of the audition by the student and his/her potential supervisor
• the relevance of the topic to the thematic priorities, and to the scientific scope of DS4H.

The main purpose of these criteria is to assess the potential for success and outreach of the PhD at the end of the three-year doctorate, therefore the quality of the student’s academic record is of significant importance.

• PhD Supervisors can submit thesis topics until May 2nd.
• Students can apply to their potential supervisor until May 9th.
• PhD supervisors must choose their candidate and upload the application folder before May 18th.
• Audition of the candidate by DS4H rapporteurs, in presence of the potential PhD supervisor, from the beginning of May to mid-June.
• Indicative ranking by the DS4H jury on June 15th.
• Decision by the DS4H Steering Committee on June 18th. For joint grants with the 3IA Côte d’Azur and NeuroMod institutes, the decision is then submitted to their respective scientific boards.

Maybe the subject of your dreams is not on this list?
If you wish to work on another topic, identify the researcher of DS4H Graduate school's partner laboratories best matching your subject of interest and ask him/her if he/she would be willing to supervise you and if he/she can submit a specific topic for you.

Congratulations to our PhD Grants Laureates