Physics Doctoral School

Writing the manuscript is an essential part of the thesis.
Experience shows that the average time between the start of the writing process and the defence of the thesis is around 6 months (with a few exceptions of considerably less... or more!).
Thesis students and supervisors should take this into account.

A few recommendations:
- It is acceptable for the manuscript to be written in English, particularly if the thesis is being co-supervised.
In this case, a justified request should be included in the training agreement (or in the thesis monitoring report, when re-registering).
However, the manuscript must still include an introduction, a conclusion and a substantial summary in French of each chapter (representing at least 10% of the length of the text in English).
- There is no minimum or maximum number of written pages.
However, the Director of the Doctoral School personally believes that the quality of a thesis is only weakly correlated with the number of pages written.
The more pages written, the longer it will take to write, as will the time taken by a rapporteur to read the manuscript and write his or her report. Be concise.
- It is essential to write your thesis work yourself and not to repeat the text of articles and documents. The doctoral student has undertaken in writing to systematically cite his or her sources and to attest to the absence of any plagiarism.
Appropriating and reproducing the work of others without citing sources constitutes plagiarism and is therefore liable to disciplinary action.
- In the case of dissertations written on work: a manuscript consisting of a simple juxtaposition of articles submitted for publication is not acceptable.
If large parts of the manuscript are made up of articles, a minimum of 40 pages of editorial work is required, introducing the subject, linking the articles together and concluding on the objectives achieved and future prospects.
Sample cover sheets for use at the Université Grenoble Alpes are available in your personal ADUM space, in the administrative documents section.

When entering the jury proposal, be sure to indicate the precise status, employer, HDR and contact details of each member. The thesis director will collect CVs from all prospective members of the jury, both French and foreign, including: date of birth, diplomas, exact academic title, current employer, record of research activities and any doctoral supervisions carried out. Updated CVs must be attached to the jury proposal. INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

The ministerial decree on doctoral training came into force on 25 May 2016, supplemented by the decree of 26 August 2022.

1. The supervisory team (thesis director, co-director, co-supervisor) is not part of the jury (decree of 25 May 2016), but they are de facto invited to take part in the jury's deliberations without taking part in the final decision. They may be asked to speak at the thesis defence, at the invitation of the Chair of the jury. They leave the deliberation before the final decision is taken.
Their role in the supervisory team during the preparation of the thesis must be specified on the thesis cover sheet and in any communication relating to the defence. They are not counted as members of the jury and therefore not included in the ratios.

2. The two referees must be HDRs (or HDR equivalents), from outside the Grenoble Alpes site, USMB, the laboratory and the ED in which the doctoral student is registered, and must not be involved in the thesis (no participation in the scientific supervision of the thesis, no joint publication with the doctoral student). In the case of a co-supervised thesis, they may not belong to the institutions that signed the agreement, unless a specific clause is included in the agreement.

Referees from foreign higher education or research establishments may be used. In this case, make sure that the rapporteur has the title of Professor or has the equivalent HDR (need to have already supervised doctoral students who have defended their thesis). This will be examined by the CED.

Members of the CSI cannot be referees.

A referee may not be part of the defence jury (although it is desirable and even recommended that he/she be involved).

3. The jury must comprise at least 4 members and a maximum of 8 (a jury of 5 members is strongly recommended), at least half of whom must be from outside the doctoral student's enrolment institution (UGA and USMB), the structures attached to the doctoral school (ministerial decree of August 2006) and the laboratory, and at least half of whom must be University Professors (PR) or Assimilated Professors (PRA).

 4. At least half of the members must be university professors (PR) or equivalent (PRA) (ministerial decree of June 1992): PR, PUPH, DR of public scientific and technological establishments EPST (CNRS, INRIA, INRA, INSERM, IFSTTAR, IRSTEA, IRD, INED), Astronomer, and DR CEA.
Please note that DRs from public industrial and commercial establishments known as EPICs (CNES, ONERA, IRSN, BRGM, ONF, SNCF, INA, ADEME, ANDRA, CSTB, LNE, etc.) are not considered to be PRs or equivalent (ministerial decree, June 1992).
The specific case of staff working for establishments with which the UGA has signed agreements is covered by the point below:
In accordance with the cooperation agreement between the UGA and the CEA dated 15 July 2020, and in compliance with Article 6 of Decree 92-70, Engineers at level E5 (and above) who hold a HDR and have the title of researcher-teacher at the UGA teaching a minimum of 32 hours EqTD per year) will be considered as PRAs, as well as those performing their duties in research units of public higher education establishments under the authority of the Minister for Higher Education and those who are members of one of the councils responsible for the administration of public higher education establishments under the authority of the Minister for Higher Education or university components. Following the agreement between the UGA and the CEA and the creation of the status of DR by the CEA (general instruction note 739 of 6/7/2021), CEA research directors (DR) belonging to the research units listed in the agreement of 15 July 2020 or who have been assimilated as PRA under an agreement with another public higher education establishment authorised to award doctorates in France are considered as PRA from 1 January 2023.
 

 5.  The jury must include at least one member with the status of professor in a higher education institution allowed to grant PhDs in France or its equivalent in a foreign university

It is recommended that a jury includes at least one UGA research professor, either a University lecturer with a HDR (accreditation to direct research) or a full university professor, who was not involved in supervising the thesis.
 

6. A non-academic person holding a doctorate may be a member of the jury. If he or she does not hold a doctorate, this person may not be a member of the jury. They may only participate as guest members.

7.  An emeritus member (PR, DR or MCF) may use his or her degree (HDR) to act as rapporteur or examiner for a thesis. However, as they are no longer in office, they cannot use their PR or PRA rank. Consequently, as they do not count as a PR or PRA, they cannot be president of the jury.

8.  The chair of the jury must be a PR or PRA and must be working in a University or UMR, or be a member of an EPST. He/she cannot be a supervisor of the thesis.

9. The composition of the jury must allow for a balanced representation of women and men (Art.18 of the ministerial decree of May 2016). As this balance is difficult to achieve in some disciplines, the rule is that there must be at least one woman and one man on each jury.

10. For co-supervised theses, the above rules apply, although they may be relaxed in certain cases. In particular, the proportion of external members may be lower (at least 1/3). On the other hand, except in very specific cases mentioned in the agreement, the rules concerning rapporteurs (2 external HDRs or equivalent) and the proportion of PRs or PRAs must be respected. In the case of joint supervision, a director or co-director from the partner university is considered to be a local member.

ATTENTION :  Les chercheurs invités ne sont pas des membres du jury, ils n'apparaissent pas dans la composition de jury.

The use of video-conferencing is governed by article 2 of the Order of 27 October 2020.   
This provision, introduced during the exceptional period of the health pandemic, is not the norm and remains an exception.

‘Exceptionally, the president or director of the institution, after obtaining the opinion of the director of the doctoral school, on the proposal of the thesis director, may authorise the doctoral student and the members of the jury, in whole or in part, to take part in the thesis defense by any means of telecommunication that allows them to be identified and guarantees their continuous and simultaneous effective participation in the debates as well as the confidentiality of the jury's deliberations. The technical means used shall endeavour to ensure that the proceedings are public’.
The request for full videoconferencing must be made when the application is submitted, using the dedicated form.  
In the case of partial videoconferencing (to be mentioned on the jury proposal form), please note that the jury chair and the doctoral student must be physically in the same room.