The general objectives of the ILCB PhD funding are (i) to develop interdisciplinary research on language, communication and the brain (ii) to promote collaborations between the teams of the institute and (iii) to support research of high international level.
- PhD project
Each candidate for an ILCB PhD grant must be supervised by at least two members of the ILCB from two different laboratories with whom the candidate develops a complete PhD project (see format in the call for proposals). Either the two ILCB members co-supervise the thesis equally (50%-50%), or one is the primary PhD director (% participation greater than 50%) and the other is the secondary PhD director (% participation less than 50%). Each thesis director indicates, in the thesis proposal, his or her percentage of involvement (e.g. 50%, 40%, 30% etc.), as well as the number of doctoral students who are already under his or her (co-)supervision.
- Proposal of topics by ILCB members
ILCB members are invited to publish on the ILCB website pre-proposals for research projects specifying a research theme, key words and, optionally, an abstract and the desired competences. Candidates can then contact the person(s) responsible for the proposal to elaborate together a full PhD project related to this theme. A pre-proposal for a thesis project can potentially lead to several applications. It is up to the authors of each pre-proposal to select the candidate to be retained, and to elaborate together the complete thesis project. The files of unsuccessful candidates must be sent to the ILCB management for distribution to the entire list of potential leaders.
- Eligibility criteria for supervisors
– An ILCB member may be the primary PhD supervisor (% participation equal to or greater than 50%) of a single application only.
– An ILCB member who is the primary collaborator in the postdoc competition cannot be be the primary supervisor of a PhD project in the same year.
– An ILCB member who is the primary director of an ongoing ILCB PhD may not be the primary supervisor of a new thesis project. If his or her % participation in the current PhD project is 30% or less, he or she may be a primary or co-director of a new thesis project.
– An ILCB member may submit multiple pre-proposals for thesis projects in advance of the competition, but may only be the principal director (% participation equal to or greater than 50%) of a single PhD application.
- Eligibility criteria for applicants
– The project must be related to the scientific objectives of the ILCB
– The application must be complete (see text of the call for applications)
– The candidate must be eligible for registration in the doctoral school to which the principal director belongs.
- Selection of candidates for the audition
– After checking the eligibility of the candidates, the assistant director team selects for each application 5 to 6 experts from the members of the advisory board.
– The evaluation of the applications by these experts is based on the selection criteria (see point 6 below).
– The experts’ reports are forwarded to the jury (see point 7 below) which decides on the list of candidates to be interviewed.
– The ILCB is attentive to the parity of the selected applications.
- Selection Criteria
- Quality of the applicant (10 points)
- Academic background (40%)
- Suitability of profile and project (20%)
- Interest of the CV (20%)
- Motivation (20%))
- Quality, originality and feasibility of the project (10 points)
- Interdisciplinarity, structuring effect for the ILCB and coherence with the scientific policy of the ILCB 1 (10 points)
1 A structuring effect for the ILCB often results from bringing together teams from different labs, from the use of different techniques/platforms, from the development of techniques and protocols that can be used for other projects, from the acquisition of data that can be used by different ILCB teams, etc.
- Composition of the jury
The jury is composed of the director of the ILCB or an assistant director and, as far as possible, at least one person per laboratory (10 laboratories) with no conflict of interest (see point 6 below). Laboratories with more than 20 members (according to the ILCB site: LPC, LPL, INS, INT) can propose 2 members for the jury. The ILCB is attentive to the parity of the jury members.
- Conflict of Interest Criteria for Jury Members
8.1. Being a candidate’s principal thesis director (% of participation equal to or greater than 50%).
8.2. If the % of participation of the jury member in the direction of the thesis is less than or equal to 30%, it is possible for him/her to participate in the jury without taking part in potential votes concerning the candidate.
8.3. If a member of the jury belongs to the same laboratory or team as the principal thesis director, he/she may participate in the jury without taking part in potential votes concerning the candidate.
- Audition
The audition takes the form of an individual interview (10 minutes of presentation and 15 minutes of questions). The members of the jury then deliberate for 5 minutes. A general deliberation takes place after the audition of all the candidates to arrive at the final selection.