Lille France PhD Scholarship 2027–2028: Complete Process of Application Explained
The University of Lille in France has opened its France Excellence Eiffel Scholarship 2027–2028 call through EGSESAM, its graduate school for economics, social sciences, planning and management. This announcement invites international doctoral candidates in economics and management to seek university nomination for French government funding.
If you are considering a PhD, begin with a research question that a Lille supervisor can help you investigate. A strong academic record matters, but your application also needs a convincing connection between your previous training, the proposed thesis and the host research team. What would make Lille the right academic home for your project?
The application requires coordination: you prepare the academic evidence, a supervisor supports the project, the doctoral school reviews the file, and Lille decides whether to submit your nomination to Campus France. Sending documents directly to the national scholarship platform will not complete this process.
My advice is to approach the call as a research application with funding attached. First establish your eligibility and supervision arrangements, then prepare a file the university can assess. The guide below explains which funding route fits your situation, what documents to assemble and how to move from an initial enquiry to a completed nomination.
From Research Idea to Lille’s Eiffel Nomination
01 Who can Lille nominate for this doctoral call?
You need an eligible doctoral project, foreign nationality and a date of birth after 31 March 1991. The current school announcement identifies economics and management; the school’s wider subject portfolio does not automatically make every discipline eligible for this particular call.
Applicants studying abroad receive priority. Being in France does not automatically exclude you from doctoral Eiffel funding, but the longer award has a specific new-arrival condition. Use your intended doctoral year and supervision arrangement to identify the appropriate route:
| Your proposed situation | Maximum Eiffel support | What to confirm with Lille |
|---|---|---|
| First-year PhD as a new arrival, without current enrolment in a French institution | 36 months | A cotutelle is excluded; international co-supervision is not compulsory. |
| Entry into the second or third doctoral year under a cotutelle or international co-supervision | 12 months | The signed supervision agreement and funding outside the Eiffel period. |
| Entry into the second doctoral year under a cotutelle or international co-supervision | 18 months | Whether the proposed research stay qualifies for the longer mobility award. |
A cotutelle is a formal joint doctoral arrangement between institutions; codirection means co-supervision. The national rules also permit an 18-month award in the first doctoral year, while Lille’s announcement describes shorter awards for second- or third-year entry. If you want first-year funding under joint supervision, ask EGSESAM to confirm whether it will accept that route.
Disclose any previous Eiffel application or award. A rejected doctoral application cannot be resubmitted at the same level, and a previous doctoral recipient cannot receive another Eiffel doctoral award. Former Eiffel master’s recipients may be considered for doctoral funding, but not for the 36-month route.
Return to your Lille Eiffel checklist
02 What will Eiffel fund, and what remains your responsibility?
Eiffel provides a living allowance and supporting services, while fee exemptions and remaining costs must be checked separately. The doctoral allowance shown above is accompanied by international and domestic transport support, insurance and accommodation-search assistance, subject to programme conditions.
French government scholarship holders are exempt from registration fees for qualifying national diplomas at eligible public institutions. Eiffel does not pay additional training fees. Ask Lille for written confirmation of the exemption applicable to your doctorate and any charges that remain.
Build a budget for rent, a housing deposit and your initial arrival expenses. For a shorter research stay, also show how the rest of the doctorate will be funded. A 12-month scholarship is substantial support, but it is not three years of financing.
Eiffel cannot be combined with another French government scholarship, Erasmus+ or an Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie scholarship. A salaried doctoral contract is also incompatible with Eiffel status. Have Lille check your existing funding before proposing a combination.
Return to your Lille Eiffel checklist
03 What should you prepare before asking Lille to support you?
Prepare your academic record and research case first; Lille’s staff must complete the institutional assessment. The nomination form asks for grades and rankings in their original system, so you should not convert your results into French grades yourself.
- Identity and academic evidence: passport or accepted identity document, diplomas and transcripts from the last three years; include official ranking evidence where available.
- CV and career plan: explain how your training and experience prepare you for the proposed research, and what you intend to do after the doctorate.
- Thesis proposal: identify the research question, objectives, hypotheses, methods, originality and expected contribution. Lille’s published doctoral guidance allows a proposal in French or English, up to five pages.
- Funding and supervision: prepare a plan for the whole doctorate, plus the cotutelle agreement or signed international co-supervision evidence when the route requires it.
- Declarations and language evidence: complete Lille’s sworn statement and the required candidate commitment documents; provide language certification where applicable.
The final dossier requires a scientific assessment by an eligible professor, research director or researcher qualified to supervise doctoral work, plus the expert’s CV of no more than two pages. The expert must be external to Lille, your home institution and country, must not share your nationality, and must not have collaborated with the proposed supervisor or research unit. Ask your supervisor to arrange this assessment.
Make the research case concrete. “I want to study management in France” gives a supervisor little to assess. A focused question, a feasible method and a clear connection to that researcher’s work give your enquiry academic substance. Use evidence from your own studies and experience.
Lille’s assessment considers motivation, academic preparation, career coherence and the value of hosting your project. For broader preparation, see our guide to securing an Eiffel university nomination, then follow Lille’s own checklist.
Return to your Lille Eiffel checklist
04 How do you apply through Lille, step by step?
Start with a suitable Lille supervisor and submit through the doctoral school; Lille handles the national Eiffel application. Follow this sequence:
- Identify a research match. Consult EGSESAM’s directory of eligible thesis supervisors, then check their research interests. Contact a relevant academic with your CV, academic results and a concise project outline, explaining that you seek Eiffel consideration.
- Confirm the route and submission instructions. Ask your proposed supervisor and EGSESAM whether the project fits the call, which scholarship duration applies and where the completed file must be sent. For procedural enquiries, the school publishes [email protected]; the announcement does not identify a dedicated student upload portal.
- Use the current nomination documents. Open Lille’s Eiffel 2027–2028 call and download its application form and sworn statement. Select Bourse Doctorat, complete your portions and supply the PDFs. Lille’s general guidance asks for attachments in one PDF; confirm how EGSESAM wants the form and declarations packaged, and leave staff evaluations and signatures to the responsible officials.
- Arrange endorsement before the school deadline. The graduate-school director’s opinion is mandatory. Allow time for your supervisor and laboratory to review the dossier and obtain signatures; ask whether they impose an earlier handover date.
- Complete doctoral admission separately. EGSESAM uses ADUM for doctoral candidatures and requires a supervisor’s agreement and an identified laboratory. Ask for the admission sequence applicable to 2027–2028 entry; an Eiffel proposal does not itself complete admission. No scholarship application fee is stated in the call, so confirm any separate charges with the school.
- Let Lille submit the national nomination. Selected files go through the university’s international relations service to the Campus France Eiffel doctoral platform, which accepts submissions from French institutions. Obtain confirmation that Lille has submitted your file and ensure that only one institution nominates you.
University nomination is followed by national selection; it does not guarantee an award. If you are still comparing hosts, our guide to French universities offering Eiffel application routes can help you check other institutional windows.
Return to your Lille Eiffel checklist
05 Five Questions to Settle before Submitting Your Application
Resolve these points with Lille before treating your dossier as complete.
Can master’s applicants use this Lille announcement?
This announcement concerns doctoral funding in economics and management. The attached form has both master’s and doctoral tick boxes, but that does not establish a master’s application route through this call; master’s candidates should contact the relevant Lille programme.
Do I need a supervisor’s acceptance letter before applying?
You need a supervisor’s agreement, and the school does not assign a supervisor to you. The call does not list a separate generic acceptance letter as a standalone requirement; ask what written evidence and signatures Lille needs for your dossier.
Should I wait for final admission or create a Campus France account first?
Contact the supervisor and doctoral school now to establish the nomination and admission sequence. ADUM handles doctoral candidatures, while the national Eiffel platform is for institutions; any separate admission or visa-related Campus France procedure does not submit your Eiffel nomination.
Can I apply without IELTS, and must my proposal be in French?
The call states no universal IELTS score, and Lille’s doctoral guidance permits a thesis proposal in French or English. Confirm the research team’s language expectations and accepted evidence; permission to write in English does not establish a language-test waiver.
What if my university does not provide a class ranking?
Ask Lille what evidence it will accept before leaving the ranking field unresolved. Request an official explanation from your university and provide transcripts and documented academic distinctions; do not invent a rank or present a self-calculated position as certified.
Return to your Lille Eiffel checklist
06 Which deadline governs your Lille Eiffel application?
The last date for EGSESAM to receive nomination files for the University of Lille France Excellence Eiffel Scholarship 2027–2028 is 13 November 2026. This is the doctoral school’s receipt deadline; your supervisor or laboratory may need the documents earlier. The announcement gives no closing hour.
Lille must submit selected nominations to Campus France by 6 January 2027 at 23:59 CET, Paris time. This national deadline does not extend Lille’s internal window. National results are scheduled for the week of 12 April 2027.
The award-year research stay must begin between 1 September and 30 November 2027, and the scholarship cannot be deferred to another year. The Eiffel announcement does not publish a separate 2027–2028 doctoral-admission deadline; obtain that timetable from EGSESAM.
Begin with a focused supervisor enquiry, then work backwards from the school’s receipt deadline. A clear project, verifiable academic evidence and timely institutional approval give Lille a file it can evaluate and, if selected, nominate.
