CENTURI PhD program

Every year, CENTURI offers up to 16 new graduate students from all over the world the opportunity to engage in cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, in a dedicated PhD program. Our PhD fellowships are aimed at talented and highly motivated students interested in interdisciplinary approaches to decipher biological processes. CENTURI wishes to attract graduate students with a diversity of background: biology, physics, engineering, applied mathematics or computer sciences.

CENTURI PhD

PhD students are registered for their PhD in one of Aix-Marseille University doctoral schools (Healh and Life Sciences, Physics and Sciences of the Matter, Mathematics and Computer Science, etc.), leading to a PhD degree from Aix-Marseille University. The doctoral school is usually determined by the PhD student’s host laboratories.

As a general rule, PhDs in France last for three years. Students have the opportunity to apply for a 4th year of funding (mainly through external sources of funding, although internal options also exist), on a competitive basis.

PhD students are not required to teach during their PhD. However, they can apply to Aix-Marseille University to teach a maximum of 64 hours / year

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An interdisciplinary community

PhD students recruited during our calls are supervised by at least 2 senior scientists of our community, from different disciplines (Physics / Biology, Maths / Biology, etc.).

To ensure a proper supervision of recruited PhD students, CENTURI supervision rules are defined in a PhD charter. A yearly thesis advisory committee session is also organised to oversee the progress of the PhD students.

CENTURI PhD students also benefit from the advice of a tutor, who is a privileged point of contact for the PhD candidate discuss with their tutors about any difficulty encountered during their PhD, discuss about their career goal, etc.

This year 30 students have joined our community.

Training

PhD students are expected to follow 100 hours of training, as follows:

  • 50 h of scientific training (including participation in scientific meetings counts)
  • 50 h of transversal / career-development training

In order to help CENTURI PhD students acquiring new skills as well as preparing them for their post-PhD career, students that join CENTURI also benefit from training courses (Imaging training, Paper writing, Oral communication, etc.) organised by the Education Committee and meetings with professionals from the private sector. These training courses come on top of those  that are already available from doctoral schools.

Taking part in the scientific life

PhD students are completely immersed in the community's scientific life by attending various scientific events organized by CENTURI throughout the year (Scientific Meetings, CENTURI days, etc.) as well as our seminar series that take place at least twice a month. These interdisciplinary seminars welcome scientists from our community and scientists from all around the world, invited to give a talk and meet our students during tutored seminars. We believe that these seminars are great opportunities for PhD students to listen to interdisciplinary talks, broaden their view of the scientific world and meet fellow scientists.

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How can I join CENTURI PhD program

CENTURI PhD calls open in January. Candidates can either:

  1. Apply to an interdisciplinary project published on CENTURI recruitment page
  2. Contact a CENTURI scientist to propose an interdisciplinary PhD project, fitting the objectives of the call

Selected candidates will be invited for an interview by an ad hoc selection committee as well as meetings with group leaders from the CENTURI community who have proposed a project during the call.

Selected candidates are expected to start their PhD between October and December of the same year.

Contact us

Please contact info@centuri-livingsystems.org if you have any question regarding CENTURI PhD program.

phd representatives

A question on the campus life?

For any questions relative to campus life with regards to the PhD call, you may contact CENTURI PhD representatives: