Public Health

PhD

Before starting a PhD, it is necessary to engage in active prospection several months before your university enrolment.

To prepare a PhD in Public Health, the following prerequisites must be met:

• a sufficient training
• a PhD project
• an available PhD supervisor, and a host research team
• a funding arrangement

Prerequiste

Requirements for a favourable examination of an application for admission

Previous training

You must have a strong Master training in the chosen specialty. This is usually a Master's degree related to one of the Doctoral specialties, but equivalencies are possible.

Funding

You must have funding for your thesis, which can be:

• a specific funding for the PhD (doctoral contract or research contract)
• a simultaneous professional activity, provided that sufficient time is made available for the PhD thesis

PhD project

• The PhD project must be in line with a workload that you can achieve within a 3-year time frame
• The "scientific volume" expected from a thesis is the equivalent of 3 articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, of which you will be the first author.
• The defense of the thesis supposes that 2 of these articles are accepted for publication.

PhD supervisor

Unless otherwise agreed, he/she:

• must belong to one of the host teams accredited by the Doctoral School.
• must have the right to lead research (HDR in France).
• may only supervise a maximum of three doctoral students (or the equivalent in the event of co-direction), including yourself.

Define a PhD project

Prepare your registration for the first year of your thesis

Finding a thesis subject that motivates you; a thesis supervisor available; and funding requires you to undertake an active prospecting several months before your university registration for your thesis.
 
You can refer to the list of the Doctoral School's teams.
It is not impossible to do your thesis in another team. Contact the Doctoral School in advance to discuss this.

Procedures related to the thesis

You wish to acquire research experience in a foreign country during your thesis, or the thesis project you have accepted leads you to carry out part of your work abroad. In both cases, the thesis with international co-supervision is then an option to be studied with your thesis director. If a substantial part of your work is to be carried out in a European country other than France, you may also wish to consider whether you would like to pursue a doctorate with a European label.
 
Alternatively, if you wish to eventually move into the field of applied research (R&D) or work in a non-academic sector, a thesis with an industrial partner and governed by a CIFRE agreement has its strengths.
 
All these particular thesis modalities require specific administrative procedures that must be anticipated.
 
Funding of the thesis

To identify the multiple mechanisms and potential sources of funding for your PhD thesis, we recommend the directory established by ANDES. See also the section: Finding financing.

Find funding

In accordance with current regulations, the EDSP ensures that all successful candidates are provided with funding to cover the duration of their thesis research. This is one of the criteria for selecting applications.

Thesis funding mainly takes two forms:

• Funding specifically for the completion of the thesis (e.g. a doctoral contract, research contract or CIFRE agreement), for which it is necessary to monitor calls for applications well in advance of the admission application and to apply to various funding bodies/employers, with the support of your future thesis supervisor;
• A concurrent professional role (clinical work or an engineering role in a research laboratory, for example). In this case, the doctoral school requires that sufficient time be set aside for the thesis within the scope of this professional role and that the employer gives their consent.

Admission to the EDSP

Once the prerequisites have been met, you must follow the admission application procedure; please follow the steps outlined below and explained in detail in this file.

There are two admission routes: the competitive selection process for doctoral contracts and the application-based process for all other types of funding.

1. Submission of the project by the thesis supervisor via ADUM
2. Application by the doctoral candidate for the project via ADUM (attach the thesis proposal and the funding application)
   1. For the competitive selection route, no additional documents are required.
   2. For the selection route, add the supplementary funding application form if you are undertaking concurrent professional activity
3. Verification by the candidate and the thesis supervisor of the complete PDF file. It is this complete PDF file that will be reviewed by the EDSP Admissions Review Committee or by the Doctoral Contract Award Panel. Consequently, the candidate and the thesis supervisor must ensure that all elements necessary for understanding the project are included in the file. If this is not the case, you should contact the EDSP.

Once this has been done, your application for admission will be reviewed by the EDSP’s Admissions Review Committee, which meets regularly. The EDSP will then inform you of their decision, which may subsequently be subject to discussion and further correspondence with the supervisor.

Registration and annual re-registration follow the same procedure: first, the EDSP reviews and verifies a number of details; then, once the EDSP has given its approval, the student can complete the administrative registration process with the University.

Registration for the EDSP

This is only possible once the ED has issued a letter of acceptance.

The Individual Supervisory Committee (CSI) must be established and approved by the EDSP management in order to finalise enrolment. (Guide in English)

It is possible to enrol on a PhD programme whilst continuing in a main occupation.

Annual re-enrolment with the EDSP

Re-enrolment takes place in two stages:

• Once the CSI exams have finished, the EDSP will email out re-enrolment authorisations.
• Once you have received your re-enrolment authorisation, you can complete the process on ADUM

Directory of theses in progress

Current PhD topics - Paris-Saclay University 

Current PhD thesis topics - Université Paris Est

PhD programme at the EDSP

Supplementary training alongside the PhD

The research work involved in the PhD must be complemented by supplementary training.

Three objectives

• to supplement or enhance scientific and technical training relevant to the PhD topic
• to broaden horizons into fields or disciplines outside the scope of the PhD, thereby enriching general scientific knowledge
• to facilitate the professional integration of PhD graduates

Rules

• 20 training credits to be earned during the PhD (1 credit corresponds to 1 day of training)...
• these credits must be distributed across the 4 categories (see document below)

• 4 compulsory training courses (Research ethics and scientific integrity, Combating gender-based and sexual violence, Open science, Sustainable development)

Training courses offered by the EDSP

Every year, the EDSP offers a range of training courses in addition to those provided by the universities where students are enrolled and those that individual PhD students may find.

List of training courses offered

Thesis supervision

Supervision of doctoral research at the EDSP

Supervision of doctoral students at the EDSP is provided by the Academic Committee and involves several key stages throughout the course of the research:

• Welcome meeting for new PhD students (December)
• Individual meeting between the PhD student and their internal CSI supervisor; this is confidential from external CSI members and the thesis supervisory team (between January and March)
• Review of re-enrolment applications following CSI meetings held between February and May at the end of the first and second years, and later if the thesis is extended
• Follow-up meeting for second-year PhD students (between March and May)

Individual Monitoring Committee (CSI)

Composition: one member from within the EDSP appointed by the ED management (internal supervisor) and two members from outside the EDSP and the affiliated university, who are specialists in the discipline, have no connection with the thesis supervision team, and at least one of whom holds an HDR or equivalent qualification.

Contents of the CSI booklet: Review of research work, doctoral training, provisional timetable for the remainder of the thesis, and funding.

Held at the end of the first and second years of the thesis and before each new application for re-enrolment.

Determines authorisation for re-enrolment

The thesis defence process begins approximately six months before the actual defence date. Firstly, you must complete and return the application for authorisation to defend your thesis to the EDSP management.

The various stages are detailed in the EDSP thesis defence guide (French and English versions).

Upcoming thesis defences

https://adum.fr/as/ed/calendrier.pl?site=psedsp

After completing a PhD

There is a high demand for top-level specialists in the various fields covered by the ED. This demand comes from hospital departments, government health agencies (such as the InVS and ANSES) and local authorities. The employment prospects for young PhD graduates from the EDSP are excellent (86% of PhD graduates are in employment one year after completing their thesis, and 100% after three years).

edsp.medecine@universite-paris-saclay.fr