Overview
The Research and Doctoral Studies Office (Direction de la recherche et de la formation doctorale – DRD) provides administrative and financial support for research. It offers a range of services for the entire research community and aims to make research easier and more effective. To do this, it focuses on the following tasks:
- Implementing the university’s research policy through administrative and financial management
- Developing tools that support decision-making
- Supporting collaboration and dialogue with major research partners, including the National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique – CNRS), the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale – Inserm), the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement – INRAE), the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique – Inria), as well as local and regional authorities and institutional partners
- Monitoring and evaluating the university’s policy on doctoral studies and research
Organisation
The Research and Doctoral Studies Office's work is carried out by four departments and several specialised services, each contributing to the university’s research and doctoral activities.
The Research Administration and Researcher Support Department (département Administration de la recherche et accompagnement des chercheurs) is responsible for:
- Organising and following up on meetings of the Board of Research (commission recherche) and putting its decisions into practice
- Maintaining relationships with research networks, laboratories and external partners
- Supporting hosted staff from partner organisations such as visiting researchers and emeritus professors
- Responding to institutional surveys
- Producing reports and overviews of research activity to guide the strategic planning and management of research at the university
- Welcoming and supporting international researchers with their administrative procedures through the Euraxess Service Centre, including hosting agreements, research stay arrangements, French language courses, cultural activities and career support
The Research Funding Department (département Financement de la recherche) is responsible for:
• Preparing, managing and implementing the research budget
• Allocating funds and providing technical support to laboratories
• Monitoring research contracts and ensuring proper reporting
The PUI Research Contracts Department (département Contrat de recherche du PUI) operates within the Pôle Unique d’Ingénierie (PUI), the university’s central project support unit for research and training projects. The department is responsible for:
- Informing the research community on national, European and international funding opportunities
- Supporting the preparation and management of national, European and international research projects
- Managing contracts for national, European and international projects
The Doctoral College (Collège doctoral) at the University of Strasbourg is responsible for:
- Managing doctoral students’ administrative processes from registration to thesis defence
- Managing cross-disciplinary and disciplinary training hours, as well as supporting doctoral students’ international mobility
- Coordinating the Doctoral Schools
- Managing the administrative process for the Habilitation to Supervise Research (habilitation à diriger des recherches – HDR)
The Research and Doctoral Studies Office also oversees the Euraxess office, which is responsible for providing administrative, regulatory and social support for international researchers. The Research and Doctoral Studies Office also manages the Publications Committee (conseil de publication) and offers editorial support to help promote selected research, mainly in humanities and social sciences. It also offers administrative support to several laboratories in these disciplines.
The Strasbourg branch of Eucor – The European Campus is hosted within the Research and Doctoral Studies Office. This team works with colleagues across Eucor to bring together expertise and share skills among the staff and students of its member universities. Eucor includes around 15,000 teaching and research staff, 13,500 doctoral students and 117,000 students across the universities of Basel, Mulhouse, Freiburg, Karlsruhe and Strasbourg.
The Research and Doctoral Studies Office also includes the University of Strasbourg’s cryogenics service and coordinates the CoRTecS network (Collectif de recherche transdisciplinaire esprit critique et sciences) which brings together the university’s scientific research and service platforms to foster collaboration and share resources.