If you (or your PhD students) are conducting a PhD thesis on digital collaboration (first year or early in the second year), but are not part of the PEPR eNSEMBLE, you may apply for your thesis to be included within the eNSEMBLE community.  

This allows you to take part in events reserved for the eNSEMBLE community (winter school, annual meetings, project workshops, etc.) and to benefit from support of €10,000 (for first-year PhD students) or €8,000 (for second-year PhD students) to cover the costs of equipment (hardware, small tools, experiments…), dissemination activities, or missions (travel and accommodation, conference or workshop registrations, etc.).  

Application Form

It must be completed only by PhD supervisors. You will be guided through the entire application procedure.  

The application dossier may be submitted either in French or in English (you can switch the display language of the form).  

If you have any questions, please send an email to pm@pepr-ensemble.fr (PEPR eNSEMBLE programme team).  

Key dates of the application process

• Application deadline: 4 November 2025  
• Jury feedback and/or final decision: from 21 November 2025  

Background

The PEPR eNSEMBLE (Future of Digital Collaboration) aims to profoundly redefine digital tools for collaboration. Whether to reduce travel, strengthen regional networks, or address the challenges and transformations of the coming decades, the 21st century will require us to collaborate at a speed and on a scale never seen before.  

Eligibility criteria

• The proposed PhD subject must be connected to one of the main targeted projects (PC, for ‘Projects Ciblés’) of the PEPR eNSEMBLE (CATS, PILOT, MATCHING, CONGRATS, TRANSVERSE). A secondary targeted project may also be indicated in the application.
• The PhD must be carried out in a laboratory affiliated with at least one of the PEPR eNSEMBLE partner institutions (the list of partners is provided at the beginning of the form). This partner will be the recipient of the funding. 
• The PhD must not have started before April 2024.  

Selection criteria

• Main selection criteria include:
  • Quality of the research programme (objective, approach, originality, methods, feasibility);  
  • Quality and complementarity of the co-supervisors;  
  • Quality of the applicant’s CV;  
  • Relevance of the doctoral research programme to (1) the objectives of PEPR eNSEMBLE and (2) the specific topics of the selected targeted project;  
  • Commitment to participate in the actions and initiatives of the eNSEMBLE community.  
• Additional criteria may include ensuring a fair distribution of financial resources across geographical areas, over time (year to year), by gender, and between partner institutions.  

The weighting of these criteria may vary depending on the selected targeted project. We strongly recommend reading carefully the description of the targeted project you wish to apply to and, in case of doubt, contacting its coordinators before submitting your application (email “pcX@pepr-ensemble.fr“, where X is the number of your targeted project). 

HFSD process

⚠️ Reminder: In case of selection of your application, an HFSD (FSD) agreement specific to the PEPR eNSEMBLE programme is mandatory for all PEPR funding, regardless of whether your laboratory or team is located in a Restricted Area (‘Zone à Régime Restrictif‘, ZRR) or not.

An application (or new application) must therefore be submitted, even if FSD authorisation has already been granted for other funding (internship, thesis, postdoc, engineer, etc.).The application must explicitly state that the funding comes from the PEPR eNSEMBLE and cover the duration of the activity within the PEPR (contract, internship agreement).

Without a validated FSD agreement, the PEPR eNSEMBLE financial allocation cannot be paid to the beneficiary institution.

FSD response time: 2-3 months max.