PhD Opportunities in Environmental Science in France

This doctoral project is hosted at the Institute of Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC) on the CNRS campus at Gif-sur-Yvette, within a collaborative research network involving IJPB-INRAE (Versailles) and IGEPP-INRAE (Rennes) . The thesis focuses on how modifying vacuolar nitrate storage can alter nitrogen use efficiency , water use efficiency , and tolerance to water stress in Arabidopsis thaliana . The work centers on the nitrate transporter CLCa and asks how changing nitrate storage in diff...

This doctoral project is part of the ANR PALWOOD programme (2026–2030), which investigates the evolution of wood during the Paleozoic, from the first appearance of wood in the early Devonian to the end-Permian crisis. The project brings together researchers from multiple French research units, including AMAP (Montpellier), CR2P (Paris) and EEP (Lille), with international collaborators. The thesis focuses on the anatomical disparity of homoxylous woods , i.e. woods without vessels. The doctoral r...

INRAE Doctoral Contracts are salaried PhD positions hosted by France’s national research institute for agriculture, food and the environment. The institute has around 272 research units across France, giving doctoral researchers access to a wide national research network. These contracts support doctoral research linked to INRAE’s scientific areas, especially agriculture, food, ecology and the environment. The position is structured as a work contract rather than a stipend, so doctoral researche...

The Laboratoire Catalyse et Spectrochimie (LCS) in Caen, France, is seeking a PhD candidate for BIOJET-X, an Indo-French research project supported by CEFIPRA and conducted in collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology in India. The project investigates how biomass-derived molecules can be transformed into jet-fuel-range hydrocarbons for sustainable aviation fuel applications. The PhD researcher will develop multifunctional catalysts based on extra-large-pore zeolites ...

Co-sponsored doctoral grants from the French Ministry of Defence support PhD research on topics relevant to French defence, through the Agence de l’innovation de défense (AID). The programme funds a wide range of projects each year and is designed for candidates whose research aligns with the agency’s priorities in the natural and engineering sciences, as well as defence-related social sciences. The grant is intended for doctoral research carried out in a French laboratory, with the funding paid...

Co-sponsored doctoral grants offered by the Government of France-Ministry of Defence in collaboration with CNRS support doctoral research in France on topics of interest to the defence sector. The programme funds a full three-year PhD and is designed for projects spanning areas such as engineering, materials science, information technology and environmental sciences. The research is carried out in a laboratory in France, and the emphasis is on doctoral theses that are beneficial to defence-relat...

The PhD@Tec21 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Cofund doctoral programme offers seven full-time doctoral positions in mechanical engineering and chemical engineering at Université Grenoble Alpes in Grenoble, France. The programme trains researchers in interdisciplinary areas including environmental engineering, bioengineering, sustainable energy, transportation, ecotechnology and cleantech. Research projects span geomechanics, fluid mechanics, biophysics, rheophysics, materials behavior and multiphysics m...

TERRA-MED is offering 33 fully funded PhD positions focused on interdisciplinary research into Mediterranean resilience to climate change. The doctoral projects cover water, land, environmental science, agriculture, energy, biotechnology, and digital technologies. Research will be conducted through universities across Occitanie in France, Catalonia in Spain, and the Balearic Islands in Spain. The programme is part of the Euroregion Pyrenees Mediterranean and is supported through the Marie Skłodo...

PhD position in Subseasonal Prediction of Atmospheric Rivers at Toulouse INP, France. This 36-month doctoral project will develop a subseasonal forecasting framework for atmospheric rivers in Europe and South America. The research will address two high-impact, understudied regions at this forecast lead time and aims to improve probabilistic forecast reliability. The project will investigate temporal aggregation to capture atmospheric-river variability, climate teleconnections and mid-latitude su...