Abstract
Under the Conventions Industrielles de Formation par la Recherche (CIFRE), the French Ministry of Research and Technology sponsors industrial research with 700 doctoral candidates per year. A CIFRE is a contract between the National Association for Technical Research (ANRT) which manages the programme and a French firm, entitling the firm to assign an R&D project to a young professional under 26 years of age as part of his/her doctoral thesis. The graduate engineer gets a minimum salary of £12 500 per year from the firm, which receives £9000 directly from ANRT. This grant is awarded for three years for a project in collaboration with an academic laboratory at home or abroad. All industrial sectors are eligible to participate in the CIFRE programme as well as firms of all sizes and in all fields. After 10 years, 3 300 CIFRE contracts have been awarded and half of them are underway – 95% have led to a PhD and 80% to a professional career in industry.
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