How to apply

Please read the following instructions carefully.

Project Eligibility Criteria

Any head of a research team located in Île-de-France who has submitted a request for membership in DIM BioConvS may apply. The submitted project must comply with the themes and objectives of DIM BioConvS. DIM will only fund projects involving collaboration between at least two teams, including one academic partner as the lead applicant who submits the project; one or more other partners, academic or private sector, may participate in the project. The lead researcher coordinates the project.

A researcher can participate in only one project as either coordinator or partner under this call. A profile of an identified candidate is mandatory to apply for this call.

Only laboratories associated with DIM BioConvS are eligible for this call. From January 2024, all laboratories must submit the membership request form for DIM BioConvS, which you can find at this link:

>>Join DIM BioConvS<<

The membership request must be submitted before the application deadline of the call. The DIM BioConvS team will inform you of the result of your membership request as soon as it is processed.

Note: Projects submitted by laboratories that have already benefited from a doctoral or postdoctoral allocation from DIM BioConvS will not be prioritized in this call for projects.

Candidate Eligibility Criteria

An identified candidate is required to apply for this call for projects.

The candidate must hold at least a Master’s degree, or an equivalent Bac+5 title, or have validated this degree before a date compatible with enrollment in a doctoral school for the 2025–2026 academic year.

The candidate must justify their enrollment in an Île-de-France doctoral school before September 1, 2025, if the project is accepted.

Note: Considering the time required for establishing agreements, the thesis contract must start between November and December 2025.

Details of the Doctoral Scholarship

The call will fund four doctoral scholarships of €130,000 over three years (gross salary), as well as an additional €5,000 envelope for associated costs, for a total of €135,000 per scholarship.

The associated costs constitute an envelope to be spent on the doctoral student’s benefit, either for dissemination/conferences, training, or recruiting interns related to the thesis subject. If the doctoral student wishes to recruit interns with the additional envelope, their employer institution agrees to post the internship offer on the platform https://stages.iledefrance.fr/ under the terms that will be communicated by the DIM BioConvS manager.

Application and Selection Process

The application form, as well as the project presentation document, can be downloaded from the platform using the templates available on the left of this page (under the "Navigation > Templates to download" menu). Please use only the downloadable templates (.docx files) to apply.

1. Online submission of the project (deadline: April 30, 2025, at 11:59 PM):
   The principal researcher must submit the following documents:

   • Mandatory application form (including general information and project summary), using the available template (do not modify the template structure). To be uploaded in the "Annexes" section. Accepted file type: .docx.
   • Project description (according to the available template). Accepted file types: .pdf.
   • CVs (2 pages) for the two main researchers, highlighting the 5 most significant publications. To be uploaded in the "Annexes" section. Accepted file types: .pdf.
   • For the doctoral candidate, a 1-page CV, a motivation letter, and a reference letter. To be uploaded in the "Annexes" section. Accepted file type: .pdf.

2. Evaluation:

   • Step 1: Preselection
     The call jury will preselect 12–15 projects based on the following criteria:

     • Alignment with the DIM themes and objectives (50%)
     • Excellence of the supervisors’ and candidate’s profiles (25%)
     • Scientific quality of the proposed thesis topic (25%)

   • Step 2: Scoring
     Preselected projects will be evaluated by experts selected by the jury, based on:

     • Previous scientific achievements of the two teams (25%)
     • Scientific quality of the project (50%)
     • Excellence of the candidate’s profile (25%)

   • Step 3: Ranking and Audition
     Evaluated projects will be ranked, and the top 4–6 candidates (including tied scores or to expand the network) will be invited to a 30-minute audition between June 17–27, where the call jury will verify the candidate’s knowledge of the project. A waitlist will be established in case a candidate is not ultimately selected after the audition.

3. Results announcement: Final results will be validated by the DIM BioConvS Steering Committee and announced by June 30, 2025.

Commitments

The beneficiary agrees to acknowledge the support of the Île-de-France Region and DIM BioConvergence for Health in all publications involving experiments funded through the grant, using the following wording in the acknowledgments section:
“This work has been supported by Region Île-de-France in the framework of DIM BioConvS.”

For more information, please contact: contact@bioconvs.org.

Communication Requirements

The logo of the Île-de-France Region must appear on all information, communication, and/or event materials related to the supported project, whether printed, digital, or audiovisual.

Management of Personal Data

DIM BioConvS commits to complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which encompasses all rules regarding the protection of natural persons in relation to the processing of personal data, the free flow of such data, and the right to data protection.

Applicants to this call for projects authorize DIM BioConvS to process the personal data collected during submission for the purpose of handling their application. The collected data will be retained for the duration of the project selection process and shared with the staff of the lead institution of DIM (Université Paris Cité) responsible for managing this call for projects, as well as with the project call jury, which includes researchers from the DIM BioConvS network (French or international), members of the DIM BioConvS ComEx, and those overseeing DIM BioConvS management at the Île-de-France Region.

In the event of receiving a grant, the winners’ data will be retained until December 31, 2029. At any time, individuals may contact the DIM BioConvS administrator at contact@bioconvs.org to request the deletion of their personal data.