A PhD provides key skills to boost your innovations and respond to social and environmental transitions. It can be completed in a company while benefiting from significant financial advantages, particularly through the CIFRE program (grants, tax credits, etc.). A PhD also allows you to develop research collaborations with internationally recognized academic laboratories and access cutting-edge equipment.
Under the CIFRE (Industrial Agreement for Training through Research) program, the company recruits the PhD student on a permanent contract or a fixed-term contract of 36 months. It assigns them a research project, which forms the subject of their thesis, and pays them a minimum gross annual salary of €27,600 (2026). In return, the company receives an annual subsidy of €14,000 from the ANRT for three years. The remaining costs borne by the company are eligible for the Research Tax Credit (CIR).
The virtuous circle of research collaboration: Cifre, CIR, CICo
The CIFRE thesis is a lever for recruiting master's degree holders and engineers, particularly in professions experiencing labor shortages, with attractive salaries while reducing costs thanks to the CIFRE funding system (subsidy + CIR). With one foot in the company and one foot in the academic laboratory, the Cifre PhD student is the cornerstone of the relationship in public/private research collaboration, acting as a link between the two. CIFRE is an "R&D indicator," which helps secure tax returns and reduces the risks associated with potential audits.
It is also possible to call on the expertise and equipment available in research laboratories to complement the CIFRE collaboration, while recovering up to 50% of the expenditure invoiced by the academic laboratory under the CICo scheme for SMEs (40% for mid-sized companies and large companies). A package that supports the company's R&D activities at a controlled cost while benefiting from high-level expertise and equipment in internationally renowned laboratories.
Example for hiring a CIFRE thesis student with a gross annual salary of €30,000
Annual ANRT subsidy (€14,000) + 30% CIR on the "approximate" salary. Gross salary x charges (41%) x operating costs (40%): [€30,000 x 1.41 x 1.40] = €59,220 CIR: 30% of [€59,220 - €14,000 = €45,220] = €13,566 Actual annual cost of the PhDstudent: €14,737 [€42,300 (gross salary) - 14,000 (ANTR) – 13,566 (CIR)]
Recruiting a CIFRE PhD student allows companies to benefit from scientific expertise at the highest international level at a particularly attractive cost. Another advantage for the company is that the PhD graduate is immediately operational upon obtaining their doctorate.
Established by the National Association for Technical Research (ANRT) in 1981, the Cifre program has enabled thousands of theses to be prepared in companies and local authorities of all sizes: SMEs 45%; large companies 38%; mid-sized companies 9%; local authorities 8%. (source: Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Space)
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Learning by Research
