Application and registration procedures for the first year of doctorate

Version française

Requirement

Applicant must have:

• A Master degree (Bac +5 in France)
• A thesis supervisor attached to a laboratory accredited to the doctoral school
• A thesis topic
• Funding (thesis funding or funding from personal resources equivalent to 80% of the minimum wage).

Please note that certain doctoral schools require a pre-application selection process before submitting your application on AMETHIS (for instance, for doctoral contracts). Kindly refer to the doctoral school's website for further information on these procedures. Note: The Biologie-Santé doctoral school mandates a selection process for all types of funding. You can find comprehensive information on the website.

Contacts :

In case you have any inquiries, please reach out to the website administrator of the respective doctoral school.

A webinar is available to explain the entire procedure: presentation and audio recording.

1. Connecte to AMETHIS (see the steps below). Only electronic applications submitted on this platform will be accepted.
   It is available in English
   
    
2. Fill in the following 11 sections to complete your online application.
   1. Affiliations
   2. Civil status
   3. Contact details
   4. Previous acadamic record
   5. Scientific theme
   6. International co-supervision (if any): attach the draft co-supervision agreement, prepared but not signed.
   7. Supervisors: a minimum of 40% of supervision is allocated to the thesis supervisor, who agrees to devote a significant proportion of his or her time to it. The majority of supervision must be assigned to the supervisor. The minimum percentage for a co-director or co-supervisor is raised to 30% (with 3 supervisors, this would be 40/30/30).
   8. Contrats and funding
   9. Individual follow-up committee (this can be completed up to 4 months after registration)
   10. Training agreement
   11. Documents ( Link to download files)

• Doctoral guidelines
• Thesis preparation notification form (STEP)
• Non-plagiarism engagement
• Request for extension of doctoral preparation period (if any).
• Academic qualifications:
  • If you hold a French Master's degree: Provisional degree or attestation or transcripts of grades S1 and S2 of M2. ONLY attestations of successful completion issued by the establishment will be accepted (after deliberation by the jury); attestations issued by the master's supervisor will not be accepted.
  • If you hold a French Master'sdegree that is not conferring the grade of Master or a foreign degree: Copies of all degrees obtained (1st, 2nd and 3rd cycle), with certified translations into French for foreign degrees (unless in English).
• Identity document (passport, identity card, residence permit)
• Curriculum Vitae
• Project summary signed by thesis supervisor
• Justification of thesis funding
  • In the case of a doctoral contract issued by Nantes Université: attach the doctoral contract information sheet (see next section).
•  For the ALL doctoral school: specific application form
•  For EDGE doctoral school: typed, signed letter of recommendation from thesis supervisor
•  For the STT doctoral school: letter of recommendation from the thesis supervisor, mentioning the supervisor's level of supervision. Typed and signed version.

When preparing your registration file, you must add the information sheet on setting up a doctoral contract (section: application documents).

• This form has to be completed by your thesis supervisor and your laboratory manager.
• It must be signed by your thesis supervisor only.
• It must be attached to the AMETHIS registration file, without the DRPI's signature.
• The employment contract can only begin one month after the file has been validated in AMETHIS by all parties (see image below). Please note that if you wish to start on September 1, your application must be submitted by July 12, as Nantes University will be closed from July 27 to August 15.

If you don't know whether you qualify for this doctoral contract, please contact your thesis director and/or laboratory as soon as possible.

The doctoral school administrator checks your file: it must be completed and included all supporting documents.
In the case of non-compliance, the administrator will inform you by e-mail of the corrections that need to be made and will give you access to your file to complete it.

Once the file has been checked and validated by the doctoral school administrator, your thesis supervisor, laboratory director and doctoral school director can send their opinions into AMETHIS.
If all opinions are approved, I see :

After receiving the opinions of your thesis supervisor, laboratory director and doctoral school director on AMETHIS, your application is signed by the President of Nantes University.
Then you will receive an automatic e-mail from AMETHIS informing you that registration has been authorized.

In the case of funding from independent resources (research project), the DRPI (Direction de la Recherche, des Partenariats et de l'Innovation) ensures that the financial resources are sufficient.
Once this stage has been validated, the DRPI forwards the application to the HR department.

The doctoral school administrator will forward the file to the school administration, who will contact you for your administrative registration and give you specific information.

The HR department will prepare the employment contract. You will be contacted by your laboratory to sign the employment contract.

You must bring the original degree or transcript. Failure to do so will prevent the registration from taking place.
If you a co-tutor, you register at both universities, but you only pay once. You must provide proof of payment of registration fees at the other university.

As an indication, the fees are (for 2022-2023) :

    95 € for the student and campus life contribution (CVEC), payable directly to CROUS. This contribution must be paid before registering at the university. The Registrar's Office will tell me what to do; I don't have to pay until the Registrar's Office asks me to.
    380 € university fees for doctoral studies

These fees must be paid each time you register for a doctorate, until you defend your thesis.

Here is some useful information:

• Once you've registered with the school, you will have an institutional address (prenom.nom@etu.univ-nantes.fr).
  This will be the only e-mail address used by university departments to contact and keep you informed throughout your life as a doctoral student. However, you can redirect messages to another personal e-mail address.
• When my application was validated in AMETHIS, I received an AMETHIS connection key. This key allows me to connect as a Nantes University student to the AMETHIS platform (to access my file and follow my training courses). You can find more information in the FAQ ("Registration & Re-registration" then "I'm a doctoral student, how do I use my connection key after my registration request?)
  This key will only work once the registration fee has been paid.
• Your STEP (Signalement des Thèses en Préparation) form will be created by the doctoral school administrator, and you will receive an automatic e-mail with your connection codes. You can complete your file, particularly with regard to keywords and abstracts. Your thesis is visible on theses.fr
• If you were previously enrolled at another French university, you now request the transfer of your academic file from your original school to the Nantes University school (second-year enrolment will be automatically blocked if the transfer has not been made).