PhD fellowships 2026

PEPR PROPSY funds two doctoral fellowships in 2026, to support innovative research projects in precision psychiatry.

Proposals must fall within one of the following themes, while studying one or more of the priority disorders identified by the PEPR PROPSY program (bipolar disorders, treatment-resistant depression, schizophrenia, and autism spectrum disorders without intellectual disability):

1️⃣ Markers for stratifying homogeneous clinical dimensions and/or forms,transnosographic to major mood disorders, psychotic disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, and pathophysiological studies

• Identification and/or validation of single or multimodal clinical, cognitive, omic, immunological, environmental, brain imaging, EEG, and/or digital markers/signatures, based on the PEPR PROPSY databases and existing or currently being acquired national and international databases.
• Exploration of pathophysiological mechanisms (i.e., genes x environment, immuno, immunogenetics, and immuno-metabolism) underlying abnormal biological pathways.

2️⃣ Épidémiologie et trajectoires, études médico-économiques

• Analysis of environmental risk factors (infections, pollution, stress, lifestyle) associated with mental illness.
• Longitudinal analyses of dimensions, trajectories, risk factors, and resilience.
• Analysis of psychiatric or somatic comorbidities.
• Medico-economic studies of induced costs, organizational, diagnostic, or therapeutic innovations.

3️⃣ Preclinical research on pathophysiological mechanisms

• Analysis of the impacts of pollution on normal or pathological brain development.
• Study of interactions between early immune abnormalities and genetic vulnerabilities.
• Abnormalities underlying transnosographic dimensions.
• Abnormal biological pathways and pathophysiology.

4️⃣ Modeling and artificial intelligence

• Development of learning algorithms (AI, machine learning, contrastive learning) based on multimodal databases (imaging, omics, clinical, etc.) from the PEPR PROPSY and/or existing or developing national or international databases.
• Use of multimodal databases to identify algorithms for stratifying psychiatric pathologies.
• Model for predicting the risks of mental illness, their comorbidities, and response to treatment.

• The candidate must hold a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in neuroscience, psychiatry, artificial intelligence, biology, or related fields.
• The thesis must be conducted in a laboratory affiliated with a French higher education or research institution authorized to award doctoral degrees.
• The thesis supervisor must be identified and possess recognized expertise in the field.
• The thesis may be carried out under a joint supervision agreement with international laboratories (EU, USA, Canada), provided the doctoral candidate is enrolled in a French doctoral school. International co-funding may be considered.

The evaluation of applications will proceed in several stages:

• Verification of eligibility and admissibility of applications: This stage will ensure that the applications meet the administrative and formal criteria defined in the call for projects.
• Scientific evaluation of the applications: Each admissible application will be reviewed by a panel of external scientific experts. These experts will assess the scientific quality of the project, its originality, and its feasibility.
• Based on the experts’ evaluations, the Executive Committee of PEPR PROPSY will establish the final ranking of the selected applications.
• The results will be officially announced by Inserm, the lead institution of PEPR PROPSY, which is responsible for managing these funding opportunities.

The proposal must be submitted on the dedicated platform before the closure of this call. All required documents must be written in English.

• Submission deadline : April 15, 2026 at 11:59pm (Paris time).
• Proposals must be submitted on the dedicated platform.
• Review the AAP description, the CV template, and the financial appendix to be completed (it does not need to be signed for submission).

For any inquiries, contact aap@pepr-propsy.fr or Eugénie Favelier (Grants administrator PEPR PROPSY).