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The "Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches" (Accreditation to supervise research, HDR) and the "Autorisation à Diriger une Thèse" (Authorisation to supervise a thesis, ADT) both allow the holder to supervise or co-supervise a thesis. The HDR also allows the holder to apply to become a university professor.
The accreditation to supervise research (HDR) is governed by the Decree of 23 November 1988.
Applications may be submitted to only one institution during the same academic year. Applicants who have already applied for this certification with another institution must disclose this fact (art 3 - Decree of 23 November 1988).
At the University of Bordeaux, people applying for an HDR or an ADT must attend a training course on supervising PhD students organised by the Graduate Research School.
The doctoral school in charge of the academic field will first carry out a pre-assessment.
Applicants must get in touch with the relevant doctoral school to submit their application. Please consult the detailed information below related to your doctoral school.
Applicants who received a favourable opinion will be contacted directly to enroll for the training course on supervising PhD students.
Only applicants who have completed the training will be presented to the Academic Council (restricted formation) for authorisation.
The University Academic Council meets 3 times per academic year (December, March and June).
After each session, the Graduate Research School informs applicants of the Council's decision.
Applicants then have 2 years to defend their HDR. If an applicant does not defend their HDR within this time, they must submit a new authorisation request to their doctoral school.
IMPORTANT: authorisation to register for the HDR shall be deemed to constitute the attribution of the ADT (whose requirements are lesser) - if the latter has not already been awarded to the applicant - and therefore makes it possible for them to begin supervising a PhD student.
It is possible to arrange a full or partial HDR defense through video conference under certain conditions.
IMPORTANT: A defense must be declared at least 8 weeks before the defense date. The time periods when the university is closed cannot be taken into account when scheduling the defense:
The doctoral and habilitation academic affairs office will be closed from December 18, 2026, at noon, to January 3, 2027.
You will receive an e-mail confirming the admissibility of your jury.
The administrative officer in charge of your defense will contact you to arrange your defense and enrollment. They will be responsible for sending the official request for pre-defense reports to the reviewers.
However, it is your responsibility to send your HDR thesis to the reviewers and members of the jury no later than 6 weeks before the defense date.
The reports must be sent to your defense officer 14 days before the defense date.
They will be sent to you and to each jury member.
At this stage, you must be enrolled in the HDR and you must have provided the latest information concerning the defense.
The defense authorisation will be signed by the President of the University of Bordeaux once favourable reviews have been received.
Your defense officer will send the defense documents to you and your referee (if applicable). The file must be printed for the day of the defense.
The referee (or the president of the jury) must return all of the original defense documents signed by all the members of the jury within a maximum of 15 days to your defense officer.
Once they have been received, a certificate of achievement will be sent to you, pending the issuance of your diploma (issued twice a year).
In person:
WITHOUT AN APPOINTMENT ON MONDAYS, TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS, IN THE MORNING ONLY
Before coming, we recommend that you contact the PhD and HDR enrollments and defenses office (inscriptiondoctorat@u-bordeaux.fr ; building A33 - Peixotto Campus - Ground floor - Office 65) to make sure that the office will be open and your diploma will be available.
Your diploma will be given to you on presentation of a valid proof of ID: national identity card, passport or driving licence.
By a third party:
If you are unable to collect your diploma yourself, it can be collected by someone else.
Your diploma will be given to them on presentation of:
- a completed and signed proxy form (download a template)
- the third party’s valid proof of identity
- a photocopy of your valid proof of identity
By post:
By sending a request (download the request) to the PhD and HDR enrollments and defenses office, to the administrative officer in charge of your thesis defense.
For postage in France or Europe: provide an A4 envelope, cardboard backed if possible (to protect the diploma), together with a coupon for registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt, stamped at the “up to 50 grams” rate, both including your name and address.
For postage OUTSIDE Europe: provide a cardboard-backed A4 envelope, together with a coupon for registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt, stamped at the “up to 50 grams” rate. Both should include the address and contact details of the French Embassy or Consulate closest to your place of residence.
As the status of supervisor is not recognised by the Decree of 25 May 2016, the ADT was introduced to recognise the work of a supervisor or co-supervisor in its own right, in accordance with the procedures established at the University of Bordeaux.
It may be issued to a researcher or a university lecturer-researcher who does not have the HDR so that they can supervise or co-supervise a PhD before obtaining their diploma.
Applications must be sent to the doctoral school in charge of the academic field and they are assessed in the same way as the HDR.
File creation :
In the case of an ADT, add the following items:
The file should be sent to edmi@u-bordeaux.fr, as a single pdf file.
If you are a member of the Institut de Mathématiques de Bordeaux (IMB) or the Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique (LaBRI), you should also send your request for an ADT or HDR to the laboratory management (IMB, dir-imb@listes.math.u-bordeaux.fr or LaBRI, direction@labri.fr) well in advance, depending on the dates of the various boards.
Special feature for the computer science speciality: All applications for ADT or HDR in the computer science speciality should also be sent to the LaBRI management (direction@labri.fr), including applicants not attached to the LaBRI.
Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
Apply for the Authorisation to supervise a thesis (ADT)
Requirements : Applicants must hold a PhD degree. Within the doctoral school, the Authorization to Supervise a Thesis is granted solely for effective thesis supervision, not for a thesis project. The Authorization to Supervise a Thesis must lead to obtaining the Accreditation to Supervise Research (degree).
Documents to be submitted:
Apply for the Accreditation to supervise research (HDR)
Requirements : Applicants must hold a PhD degree. The doctoral school has established three criteria for evaluating applications.
Documents to be submitted:
Application files must be submitted to the doctoral school via email on the specified dates.
Calendar:
The doctoral school's council reviews Accreditation and Authorisation applications three times during the academic year.
Application to ADT
The ADT will only be awarded for one supervision (100%) or one co-supervision (50%) during a researcher's or teacher-researcher's career, so that he or she can demonstrate supervisory experience when applying for the HDR.
Requests for ADT can only be made once the PhD student is registered, to avoid unnecessary processing of files if the doctoral project is unsuccessful.
Applicants must send their application by e-mail to the doctoral school at least 1 month before the date of the doctoral school board meeting at which ADT applications are to be examined; the calendar is set annually.
The application must include :
As a guide, the expected document is around 15 pages long (although this varies from one candidate to another).
Should the doctoral school council gives a favorable opinion, the ADT application is forwarded to the Graduate Research School, which will submit the file (with the report) to the university's restricted academic council, on condition that the training in doctoral supervision has been completed beforehand.
Application for HDR registration authorization
Applicants must send their application by e-mail to the doctoral school at least 1 month before the date of the meeting of the doctoral school board that examines applications for authorization to register for the HDR; the calendar is set annually.
This request must be accompanied by an application (in a single file in PDF format) including :
Calendar:
The doctoral school board, which examines ADT and HDR applications, meets 3 times a year: in October, January and April.
Download the application calendar
If the validity period of the HDR registration authorization is exceeded :
If the HDR is not defended within two years of a favorable decision by the Academic Council, a new application must be submitted according to the timetable indicated by the doctoral school, for successive examinations by the doctoral school council, then by the University Academic Council.
To submit a second application, you must be ready to defend. The applicant is asked to provide the final manuscript, ready to be sent to the referees, as well as the composition of the HDR jury and the date of defense. Please note that this date must be after the date of the academic council meeting at which this second application will be examined.
In addition, to facilitate examination of the application, the applicant is asked to provide a letter summarizing what has been done since the previous application, to ensure that the file has continued to develop. For this reason, applicants are asked to list any PhD or master's student supervision, project management, administrative responsibilities, publications, new teaching courses, etc. undertaken since the previous application.
Application to ADT
Authorization to supervise a thesis (ADT) may be granted for one thesis supervision (100%) or two co-supervisions (2 x 50%), during the career of a researcher or teacher-researcher, so that he or she can provide proof of doctoral supervision experience for the HDR.
The ADT is usually asked when a student registers for a PhD with the doctoral school.
The file includes the following documents:
Applications must be sent in electronic format (PDF) to the doctoral school
As soon as we receive the application, we contact the applicant to arrange a meeting to discuss the basis of the application and the administrative procedures that will follow.
Application for HDR registration authorization
The file includes the following documents:
Calendar
The doctoral school board examines ADT and HDR applications 3 times a year.
To apply for the ADT or HDR, please contact the doctoral school to obtain the necessary application documents (summary form and reviewer form).
The file must include the following documents, all in one PDF file named EDSVS_NAMEFirstname_ADT ou EDSVS_NAMEFirstname_HDR :
The applicant section of the reviewer form must be completed and the document returned in Word format with the file.
Applications should be sent to the doctoral school.
Apply for the Authorization to supervise a thesis (ADT)
Any researcher or lecturer-researcher attached to the doctoral school who is not authorized to supervise theses may apply for authorization to supervise a thesis.
The application must include a letter of motivation, a copy of the PhD diploma and a detailed curriculum vitae.
The director of the doctoral school appoints a reviewer, attached to the doctoral school, who examines the file and issues an opinion, which is submitted for approval to the doctoral school council and the restricted academic council (CACr).
The ADT recipient has two years to begin supervising one (100% supervision) or two theses (50% supervision).
The beneficiary may only be authorized to submit a new application if he or she has not supervised a thesis within the time limit set by the previous authorization.
Authorization to register for an HDR is equivalent to the award of an ADT (at a lower level of requirement) - if the latter has not already been awarded to the candidate - and thus enables the applicant to begin supervising a PhD student.
Apply for the Accreditation to supervise research (HDR)
Any researcher or teacher-researcher may apply to the doctoral school for authorization to supervise research in private law, public law, legal history or political science.
Applicants may apply to the doctoral school if they have held a PhD in private law, public law, legal history or political science for at least three years.
Applicants must demonstrate:
The application must include:
The director of the doctoral school checks the admissibility of the application and appoints a reviewer, authorized to supervise theses and not belonging to the same research unit as the applicant, who examines the application and issues an opinion.
The application, together with the opinion, is submitted to the doctoral school board for approval. Once the doctoral school has given its approval, the application is forwarded to the Graduate Research School, which contacts the applicant to register him or her for thesis supervisors training. Only the files of applicants who have completed the training will be presented to the Academic Board (restricted formation) for authorization.
Authorization to register for the HDR is equivalent to authorization to supervise a thesis (ADT).
When the Academic Board authorizes the candidate to submit his or her accreditation to supervise research, this must be done within 24 months.
The file presented to the jury must include :
Applications must be submitted at least 8 weeks before the date of the defense. This deadline must take into account periods when the doctoral school is closed (4 weeks in August, 2 weeks in December). Documents must be sent to the jury at least 6 weeks before the oral defense. Rapporteurs must submit their reports at least 2 weeks before the defense.
If you want to apply for an ADT or HDR, please contact the doctoral school to obtain the scientific activity summary form, the publication referencing model and the timetable for assessment of applications by the doctoral school council.
Applications must be sent to the doctoral school at least 2 months before the date of the doctoral school council meeting (3-4 times a year).
List of ADT or HDR application documents:
Doctoral and Habilitation Academic Affairs Deputy Manager
Office open on Mondays, from 08:30 to 11:30 a.m., and from Tuesday to Thursday from 08:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. - Office n°65, A33 building, 351 cours de la Libération, 33405 TALENCE Cedex
+33 (0)5 40 00 33 08
thesehdr%40u-bordeaux.fr
Head of Doctoral and Habilitation Academic Affairs
+33 (0)5 40 00 38 97
thesehdr%40u-bordeaux.fr