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The BMIC Doctoral School Competitive Exam

The BMIC Doctoral School Competitive Exam

The awarding of doctoral contracts is subject to a recruitment competition at the beginning of July each year.

Contest Terms

Students wishing to apply must submit a complete application file to the Doctoral School's administrative office.
The application form and required documents are available on the Doctoral School website.

Applications must be submitted by email to: bmic@ens-lyon.fr
No paper submission is required.

Deadline for submission: June 12, 2025 at midnight

 

Applicants who do not yet have their final Master 2 results at the time of submission may still apply.
They must specify the expected date of availability of their results, with the understanding that all Master 2 grades must be available before July 1, 2025.

   ► Download the terms of the competitive exam
   ► Download the application form for the competitive exam

The competition is open to all candidates holding a Master 2 degree (or an equivalent French or foreign diploma) obtained within the past 5 years.

It is restricted to candidates planning to complete their PhD within one of the research teams affiliated with the Doctoral School.

The competition is also open to:

  • Students in the health sector holding a Master 2 degree who are not currently in or have not completed an internship, and who do not have access to health-specific funding sources for their PhD.
  • Engineering school students who will have completed their fifth year by the time of the competition.

The competition is not open to students from Écoles Normales Supérieures, who are eligible for the specific doctoral contract for normaliens (CDSN).


How the competitive exam works

The doctoral school competitive exam consists of a 20-minute oral examination during which the candidate must:
  • Give a 10-minute presentation on the thesis project achievable in 3 years.
  • Answer the jury's questions for 10 minutes.

The presentation should be in Power-Point or PDF format. The presentation and questions may be in French or English.

The following criteria will be taken into account:

For the Presentation (out of 20 points):

  • Introduction
  • Feasibility of the project in 3 years
  • Quality of slides
  • Clarity
  • General

For questions (out of 40 points):

  • Clarity and conciseness
  • Accuracy
  • Scientific Maturity
  • Général

Material available

  • Video projector - laptop PC - pointer
  • Bring the presentation on a USB key.

Notifications & Timeline

  • Shortlisted candidates will receive their invitation by email no later than July 3, 2025.
  • Oral interviews will take place on July 8 and 9, 2025.
  • Non-selected candidates will also be informed by email.