Crédit d'Impôt Recherche, CIR (French Research Tax Credit)
30% of your R&D expenditure refunded, up to €100M of eligible spend.
CIFRE — industrial agreement for training through research
Hire a doctoral researcher onto your R&D work and have a large part of the cost funded: €42,000 of grant over three years, which can be claimed alongside the Research Tax Credit.
In brief
Key figures
€14,000
of grant paid to the company each year, outside the scope of VAT.
3 years
the length of the agreement and of the employment contract.
€42,000
of total grant over the length of the thesis.
Stackable
with the CIR on the residual cost.
The scheme
What is it?
CIFRE is a scheme run by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and administered by the ANRT (the national research and technology association). It brings together three parties: a company, a doctoral candidate, and an academic laboratory attached to a doctoral school.
The company hires the candidate on a permanent contract or a three-year fixed-term contract and assigns them research work that becomes the subject of their thesis. In return it receives an annual grant of €14,000, paid over the three years of the agreement.
The benefit does not stop there. The residual cost of the doctoral researcher falls within the Research Tax Credit base. Combined with the CIR, CIFRE often brings the net cost of a doctoral researcher below that of a final-year intern, for three years of structured, documented research.
It is also one of the better ways to build the scientific footing of a CIR file. A thesis, a partner laboratory and a research supervisor make for a state-of-the-art justification that is hard to contest.
Timing governs everything
At the filing date, the candidate must not have been registered for a doctorate for more than nine months, nor employed by the company for more than nine months. Hiring too early closes off the scheme. CIFRE is prepared before the hire, not after.
Eligibility
Are you eligible?
The company
- Be a legal entity under French law.
- Be up to date with its tax and social security obligations.
- All statuses accepted: start-up, SME, mid-cap, large group, association, local authority, chamber of commerce.
- Assign the candidate research work that forms the subject of their thesis.
- Hire on a permanent contract or a three-year fixed-term contract.
- Pay an annual gross salary of at least €27,600 (2026 ANRT scale).
The doctoral candidate
- Hold a master's degree or an equivalent qualification.
- Any nationality accepted, with no age condition.
- Be in their first professional research role.
- Not have been employed for more than nine months in total by the company, its subsidiaries or its branches at the application date.
- Not have been registered for a doctorate for more than nine months at the application date.
The laboratory
- Be attached to a doctoral school.
- Foreign laboratories are accepted under an international joint supervision arrangement.
The grant
What the grant covers
- A flat-rate grant of €14,000 a year paid to the company, outside the scope of VAT.
- Payment across the three years of the agreement, so €42,000 in total.
- A residual cost that enters the CIR base as a staff cost.
- The ANRT grant is deducted from the CIR base: the two schemes work together, but the grant received reduces the costs taken into account.
The CIR contribution on the residual cost comes to roughly €10,300 a year. That figure depends entirely on your situation and has to be calculated case by case.
How we work with you
From thesis subject to running the agreement
Framing the subject
We work with your teams to define a thesis subject that is both useful to the company and defensible scientifically before the ANRT.
Choosing the laboratory
We help you find a laboratory attached to a doctoral school whose work overlaps your problem.
Building the application
We build the application file: company presentation, research project, supervision, financing plan.
Filing and review
We file with the ANRT and follow the two-part review, scientific and socio-economic.
Fitting it to the CIR
We bring the doctoral researcher into your CIR base and secure the treatment of the residual cost.
Running the agreement
We support the three years of the agreement, from the annual payments to putting the work to use.
Go further
Estimate your funding in two minutes
Review
How is an application reviewed?
Applications are reviewed as they arrive. Each one goes through a two-part assessment: scientific, by an expert appointed by the ANRT, and socio-economic, by the regional research and technology delegation (DRARI). A review and monitoring committee chaired by the ANRT, with the Ministry taking part, meets monthly and sets the date the agreement takes effect. Expect about two months between filing a complete application and the decision.
Frequently asked questions
FAQ
The industrial agreement for training through research brings together a company, a doctoral candidate and a laboratory attached to a doctoral school. The company hires the candidate for three years on a research subject that becomes their thesis, and receives a grant from the ANRT in return.
€14,000 a year paid to the company, outside the scope of VAT, so €42,000 across the three years of the agreement.
The ANRT sets a minimum annual gross salary, around €27,600 under the 2026 scale. Nothing stops you paying more, and the extra cost remains claimable under the CIR.
Yes. The company receives the grant, and the residual cost of the doctoral researcher enters the CIR staff-cost base. That combination is what makes the scheme so effective.
Yes. No prior R&D track record is required. What counts is that the work assigned to the candidate is a real research subject and that the company can supervise it, working with the laboratory.
Past nine months of doctoral registration at the application date, the application is no longer admissible. The same nine-month limit applies to how long the candidate has been with the company.
About two months between filing a complete application and the committee's decision. The committee meets monthly, applications are reviewed as they arrive, and there is no closing date.
Nothing obliges either side to continue. A fixed-term contract ends at the term of the agreement; a permanent contract carries on under ordinary employment law. In practice many companies keep the researcher on, since three years of work on their own subject is hard to replace. Contact us to look at your situation.
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Benjamin Chemoul & David Jian
Partners & chartered accountants
Information provided for guidance only, up to date as of 2 September 2026. It does not constitute tax advice.