PhD Defense

• Publication: at least one article, as 1st or co-1st author, published or accepted for publication in an international peer-reviewed journal. Patents are also taken into consideration. 
• Training: at least 40 hours of disciplinary training and at least 40 hours of cross-disciplinary training (including at least 15 hours of training on scientific ethics and integrity).
• Décryp'thèse: participation in this event at least once (only for doctoral students enrolled in D1 from 2022/2023).
• Completed skills assessment (except for doctoral students enrolled from 2023/2024 / the skills assessment is completed directly on ADUM).

For oral examinations in 2025

The doctoral school has drawn up a jury guide to help you.

STEP 1: I follow the instructions of my registration institution and doctoral school

Instructions for institutions
Instruction for LYON1: Pôle Doctorat-HDR
Instruction for INSA Lyon:  FEDORA
Instruction for ENS Lyon : Bureau du 3ème cycle
Instruction for VetagroSup

Instructions of doctoral school
Documents to be sent to ADUM for the doctoral school (in this order)
_ ADUM summary certificate for training courses
_ Attestation Decryp'thèse with the year (only for doctoral students enrolled in D1 from 2022/2023)
_ Links of interest form for external members (rapporteurs and examiners)
_ Full text of your published articles or articles accepted for publication (for the latter, the acceptance email). Please note: no screenshots of the journal's website.
_ Completed skills assessment

STEP 2: Jury proposal (validation by your enrolment establishment
Jury composition - in addition to establishments instructions
The new rules for the PhD are published in the decree of May 26, 2016. It is at the origin of the institutions' directives: check the rules of the defense jury with your registration institution: Lyon1, INSA, ENSL or VetagroSup.

_ The thesis director participates in the jury, but does not take part in the decision.
NB: He/she is counted as a member of the jury, and is therefore taken into account in the ratios (e.g.: internal vs. external members).
_ The members of the jury designate a president among them; he/she must be a professor or a teacher of equivalent rank.
_ The rapporteurs must fe from outside the doctoral school and the doctoral's institution.
The rapporteurs are involved in the balance of the jury.
They are, except in exceptional cases, always members of the jury.
They must not have participated directly in the thesis work nor have been co-authors with the doctoral student (but they may be aware of this work, for example having been a "referee" for an article, but without having pushed the cooperation beyond that).
As far as possible, rapporteurs should not be members of the same unit.
Please note: foreign rapporteurs may write their reports in English


At E2M2, if the doctoral student has not published an article as first author on the thesis, a third reporter is required.
This person must be of foreign nationality and attached to an institution abroad.
This foreign reporter must have a curriculum at least equivalent to that of a researcher or teacher-researcher HDR in France, that is to say having supervised one or more theses, and published with his or her PhD students.

_ Some members of the doctoral student's follow-up committee may be invited to participate in the jury as reviewer(s); however, they may not be invited as rapporteurs.
_ Examiners may have been members of the doctoral student's follow-up committee. However, conflicts of interest must be avoided, such as choosing colleagues who are too closely related to the doctoral student or the thesis directors.
_ It is advisable to choose a jury of more than 4 members to anticipate any problem of withdrawal.
_ The selection of a jury member for non-scientific reasons should be avoided.

Step 3: Signature of the jury's proposal by the graduate school and re-registration
Once your application has been submitted, your thesis director will have to validate your jury. It will then be checked by your registration establisment. After validation by the establishment, it will be validated by the doctoral school.
All validations are carried out via ADUM.

Registration
The doctoral school's validation of your thesis jury will unblock the examination of your re-registration file if you defend your thesis before December 31, 2025.

Step 4: Authorisation to support

The natural language of the thesis is French because it is a national degree.
However, it is possible for any doctoral student to write and defend his thesis in another language than French (see conditions of the defense institution).
This must be justified, for example
- By the need for all members of the jury to understand the text and then to intervene in the debates.
- By the need to disseminate information outside of France.
- By the fact that doctoral students who have not completed their studies in French are better able to express themselves in writing in another language.
A substantial summary in French must however be added (about 5 to 10 pages).

The form of the thesis is free: classic, on articles, mixed. The decision is made in agreement with the director.
Be careful to "link" the articles, to place them in a general problematic and to integrate a discussion-synthesis (don't forget also the technical appendices, very often excluded from the articles themselves).

• The presentation is public, except in exceptional cases when the subject of the thesis or the work is confidential. The natural place for the defense is that of the institution to which the student belongs: the Claude Bernard University in all its components, the INSA Lyon, the ENS Lyon.
• In practice, the place of presentation may be a site of the University of Lyon (UDL)
• It is not possible to hold the presentation in a distant location from the UDL.

Room reservation
You have to reserve an amphitheater yourself.
Be careful, you have to book well in advance, especially for the December and June presentation!

Videoconference
Exceptionally, and with the exception of the president of the jury, the members of the jury can participate in the defense by videoconference (see the provisions of each establishment).

Certificate of graduation and diploma (only issued and sent by the establishments)
_ You will receive your diploma certificate if, and only if, the school has received the documents concerning your defense. The diploma will be provided at a later date.
_ Only institutions issue diplomas; doctoral schools do not have this prerogative.

Mailing lists
At the end of your defence, you will receive an e-mail deleting your professional e-mail address from the doctoral students' mailing list AND you will receive an e-mail (only if you have indicated a personal e-mail address on ADUM) to let you know that you are now registered on the doctoral students' mailing lists.