Introduction to the Paris Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity integrated PhD program
CRI (Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity) is a centre part of the Paris V Descartes and Paris VII Diderot universities, themed around life sciences, and committed to educate creative interdisciplinary researchers created in 2005 in order to break through the traditional post-graduate education status quo where disciplines are separated and not creating new approaches.
The CRI sits at the center of Paris, left bank of the Seine, where many of the french higher education and research institutions are located. The CRI houses interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs (Master AIV, FdV PhD program), and commits itself to nurture the best interdisciplinary research talents in Europe. For the past 5 years, through a international scientific committee composed of world famous experts, hundreds of graduates students have been selected from applicants across the world. The center is mostly funded by the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation which is one of the largest private philanthropic in France, and provides the students with ample opportunities to interact with world-class scientists and to interact among themselves to find research subjects they're interested in. They do their research in the densely located higher education and research establishment in Paris, and 36 of them have published 84 papers on journals including "Nature" and "Science".
Considering the differences in graduate education regimes between Europe, America and China, the CRI decided to set up an integrated PhD program (CRI integrated PhD program) based on the AIV and FdV programs, to the convenience of international applicants. The integrated PhD program consisted of 4 years: the first year is integrated with AIV-Master 2. Besides taking AIV courses, the students have to join 3 different laboratories to do a 3-month internships with each lab. At the end of the first year, through the AIV courses and internship, the student would chose a lab within Paris, supervisors and subject for the PhD thesis, and submits the project proposal. The proposals are screened by the international scientific committee in June, and students pass through oral auditions to obtain the validation of the research project. For the following 3 years, the validated students work on their thesis under the guidance of the supervisors and a thesis advisory commitee, and participate to the courses of the FdV program to train them as young researchers. Thesis defense after three years grants a doctoral degree of Paris Descartes or Paris Diderot universities.
How to apply ?
Considering the requirements to obtain a CSC (China Scholarship Council) scholarship, CRI Integrated PhD Program is preparing for special admission procedures for chinese students.
The procedure consists of two steps : online registration and interview.
The applicant has to complete the application form (download the Word document), submit transcripts, recommendation letters and other documents according to the requirements on the application form and send the application as a single PDF file to our secretary :
Cet e-mail est protégé contre les robots collecteurs de mails, votre navigateur doit accepter le Javascript pour le voir
After the online registration, the applicant will be screened by the International Scientific Committee.
The applicants who passed the initial step will then be invited for an interview in Beijing in February.