Doctoral College

PhD news : regional and international opportunities

From thesis application to the defense, including annual re-registration, the Individual Training Plan (coming soon), the Individual Monitoring Committee, the Amethis application is your main monitoring tool during your doctorate.
  • Find tutorials and questions and answers to help you use Amethis >> FAQ / Online help
  • If you have any problems, the support team will respond to you via this contact form. Tip: add a screenshot of your problem!
News on your training courses & focus on training sessions with remaining spots

Check out the current offer of additional training (disciplinary and cross-disciplinary) on Amethis > Catalog
You can filter the offer by Doctoral school (ED) and by site (Angers, Le Mans, Nantes as well as Brittany).

Presentation of the training offer

The Amethis catalog lists all the training courses offered by the Doctoral College and the Loire doctoral schools.
All courses are open to all doctoral students, regardless of your institution or doctoral school.

Equivalences

Only the training courses listed in this catalog can be counted as part of the 100 hours of compulsory training, with the exception of equivalences which may be awarded on a case-by-case basis by your doctoral school and according to the equivalence table common to the 11 EDs (link - version for the year 2024-2025)

Presentation of training courses

The training courses are listed into 12 categories:
  • Communicating, managing a project (codes: COM, MGT, GDP)
  • Creating your business and develop your knowledge of business and organizations (code: EE)
  • Developing your foreign language skills (code: LAN)
  • Mastering scientific and technical information: tools and methods (code: IST)
  • Preparing for your career progression (code: PC)
  • Respecting the principles of deontology, ethics and scientific integrity (code: ETH)
  • Strengthening its interdisciplinary scientific culture (code: CULT)
  • Training in interdisciplinarity in human and social sciences (code: DIS-SHS)
  • Training in open science (code: SO)
  • Training in programming and digital tools (code: NUM)
  • Training in teaching (code: ES)
  • Training in your discipline (code: DIS)
Each category has a code that allows you to more easily search and find all the training courses that relate to it on Amethis.
For example, typing "SO-" in the Amethis catalog (link) will display all the "Open Science" training courses, which will allow you to quickly find a course such as SO-SHS-01 (General Principles of Personal Data Regulation).
 

How to apply for training

Applications for training courses are made on Amethis (link).
As soon as a training course is planned in the catalog, it is presented on the Amethis platform. You can learn about the content, objectives, and organizational arrangements.

Application opening:

Applications typically open 6 to 8 weeks before the first day of training. When the training spans multiple sessions (eg: two days), you application stands for the duration of the training. If your application is approved, you are required to attend all sessions.

Candidate status:

When you apply for a training program, you are not yet registered.
Some programs are in high demand and require pre-selection of candidates.
Depending on the program, the pre-selection criteria include: registration of the program in the Individual Training Plan (PFI), candidate motivation, thesis year, and attendance rate.

Validation of your application:

Once your application is approved, you are registered for the training. You will receive an automated email from Amethis: please check your junk/spam folder.

Invitation:

It will then be sent to you 1 week before the start of the training. You will find all the information on the location and time of the training. We recommend that you take note of it as soon as you receive it to avoid any disappointment the day before the training. Please check your junk mail / spam.

How to withdraw from a training course?

Once you have applied for a training course, you have the option to withdraw up until the end of the application period: it is imperative to withdraw during this period.
Any withdrawal made without acceptable justification after this period (generally 7 days before the training course) will not be accepted. Your absence would then be considered unjustified.

What to do during training

You will be asked to be punctual, whether the training is online or in-person.
Late arrivals and early departures will result in a reduction in the number of hours for the training.
If you are absent for more than 70% of the training time (including all sessions), no time will be counted.
When training is offered online, please turn on your camera and participate when requested.

Sanctions for unjustified absence from training

Any unjustified absence will result in an email being sent to you, with a copy to your thesis supervisor. Your absence will reduce your attendance rate for training courses, a criterion taken into account.

How are your training hours validated?

Once the training has taken place, the instructor sends the attendance list to the relevant training manager, who then validates the hours on Amethis. This can take a little time.

How to give feedback of training courses

An evaluation questionnaire will be sent to you by email after each training session. This questionnaire allows us to evaluate the training each year based on your feedback, allowing us to develop the program, adapt it to your needs, and gather your training preferences.


During your thesis, you must complete at least 100 hours of training. The training courses you apply for must be chosen based on your Individual Training Plan (Plan de Formation Individuel, aka PFI), the skills you wish to develop during your doctorate, and not based on the number of hours you need to achieve.
Each training course offered in the catalog allows you to develop 1 to 3 skills. The skills that must be acquired during your doctorate have been defined in the RNCP and listed in 6 skill blocks (see the list on Légifrance)

The PFI is a document that you will write based on your background, the specifics of the thesis being prepared, and your career plan. You may be assisted by your thesis supervisor in writing it. The PFI must be presented to your Individual monitoring committees (CSI) and adjusted according to your needs.

To help you develop your PFI, you will be asked to complete a skills self-assessment questionnaire. This questionnaire will help you identify the skills you need to develop during your thesis based on your current level for each skill and your career goals.

In short, the PFI allows you to select, from all the training courses available in the catalog, those that will be relevant to your research project and your career path.
The advantages of the PFI module:
  • visualize your skills panel and training categories in infographics.
  • a session opens for a training course that you have added to your PFI? > you receive an automatic notification.
  • you apply for the training? > you have priority.
Tutorial to access your PFI online on Amethis

During your doctorate you must follow compulsory training courses for all doctoral students:

1. Research Ethics, Scientific Integrity

It is mandatory to follow at least one training course offered in this catalog or to validate one of the 2 MOOCs below:

  • MOOC from the University of Bordeaux on scientific integrity (link)
  • MOOC from the University of Lyon on research ethics (link)

2. Open Science

It is mandatory to choose at least one workshop or conference offered in this catalog or on Amethis whose title begins with "open science".
It is also possible to validate a training course outside the catalog which would have similar content, such as the MOOC offered by Sorbonne University (link). All requests will be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

These organizations, systems or groups offer training adapted to your doctoral course, which you can request to be included in your quota of doctoral training hours.

Doctoral students in the Pays de la Loire region

Training catalog of the Pépite Pays de la Loire

Doctoral students from University of Angers

 Training catalog and Call to papers of the EU Green Allianc (in English)

Doctoral students from Nantes University

Internationalize your training with the EUniWell alliance of European universities.
Our catalog offers a wide variety of training courses, from popular science to transferring your doctorate outside of academia. EUniWell training hours will be directly integrated into your training time account on Amethis.
Training catalog and Call to papers from EUniWell (in English)

The professional future of doctors 3 years after the defense, in Pays de la Loire

The Doctoral Colleges of Brittany and Pays de la Loire jointly conduct their annual monitoring surveys on the professional situation of doctors graduated by the 19 higher education and research institutions located in their territories. Each year, nearly 1,000 doctors graduate in Brittany and Pays de la Loire. This large sample allows for in-depth data analysis.

To facilitate access to the results of these surveys for all those involved in doctoral studies, the doctoral colleges have created Doctostat, an interactive tool that allows for easy visualization and use of numerous indicators on the professional future of doctors. Doctostat is updated each year with the results of the latest monitoring survey, which allows you to see changes in the employment of doctors over the years.

Discover Doctostat here and browse data on professional situation, job stability, remuneration, sectors of activity, etc.

The enrolling institutions are the first point of contact for doctoral students when reporting violence they may encounter as a victim or witness.
The links below will take you to the dedicated services and/or direct contacts:

Ma thèse en 180 secondes, also known as "My three-minutes thesis", is a scientific pitch and mediation competition where, in the style of a one-man/woman show, each PhD student has 3 minutes - not a second more! - to give a clear, concise and, above all, convincing presentation of their research topic, whatever the discipline. Candidates in the regional final come from the schools and universities of Nantes, Angers and Le Mans..

Discover or re-watch the videos from each regional final on YouTube


 
 
 
 

This competition is run by the CNRS and France Universités with the support of MGEN and CASDEN Banque Populaire. The regional final is organised by the Collège doctoral Pays de la Loire and the host institution for the annual edition.

College Management :

Corinne Miral - Nantes site
Nathalie Prince - Le Mans site
Nicolas Clere - Angers site

Administrative officers :

Aurélie Lardeux-Pain - regional coordinator / Amethis support
Delphine Landron - Nantes site manager
Geoffroy Martin - Le Mans site manager
Jean-François Bruggeman - Angers site manager
Julie Carré - regional training offer coordination
Eva Garrouste - regional communications officer / Amethis support

What is the role of a doctoral student representative?

It is essential that doctoral students are represented in decision-making bodies such as the Council of your Doctorla School, which assists the Director in their strategy and decisions.
The doctoral student representatives intervene on all subjects covered by the ED and particularly have an intermediary role between the management of the doctoral school and all the doctoral students of the ED.

  • They constitute a force for proposals to energize and enrich the scientific life of the ED, to report any problems encountered by doctoral students and to suggest ways of improving the various systems provided by the ED.
  • Representatives may be alerted by doctoral students who are experiencing more or less serious professional difficulties; they have a duty to provide support and guidance to the relevant structures on these issues, and to alert or report to the bodies or systems specifically provided for in this area within their establishment or the ED.

The mandates of the doctoral student representatives last for 2 years. This investment as an elected official allows you to count as training hours by submitting an equivalence request.
To learn more about the subject of doctoral student representation: Le doctorat à la loupe, fiche n°17 de l'ANDès

Access the list of doctoral students elected within each doctoral school

The regional Doctoral College (Collège doctoral Pays de la Loire, aka CDPDL) organizes the regional doctoral policy by contributing to its visibility and by promoting the pooling of activities of the eleven doctoral schools.
This is a system common to nine establishments in the region: Nantes Université, l’Université d'Angers, Le Mans Université, Centrale Nantes, l'École nationale supérieure Mines-Télécom Atlantique Bretagne Pays de la Loire, Oniris Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire, Agroalimentaire et de l'Alimentation Nantes-Atlantique, l’Institut Agro Rennes-Angers, l’Université Gustave Eiffel, l’École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Nantes.
It sets up common procedures between doctoral schools and institutions, coordinates the development of the training offer for all doctoral students, participates in the promotion of the skills of doctors and ensures monitoring of their career progress by carrying out and publishing surveys.
Updated on 03 June 2025.