Post-doctoral research grants

Every year, CNES awards some 30 post-doctoral grants. Our call for applications is open until April 1st midnight !

Goal of the post-doctoral study :

The post-doctoral research grants are awarded for a maximum period of two years to young doctors working of domains related  to the space programmes in order to complete their resume for an  integration in the research or industrial worlds.

By doing so, CNES wants to promote the recruitment of high-skilled researchers to work on focused topics of the space programmes. The applicant selection is thus mainly focusing on the qualities and future capacities to integrate a research organisation or an industrial establishment.

Criteria selection

This quality condition leds CNES to establish extremely rigorous selection criteria basing themselves on the recruitment criteria of the French Committee of scientific research (formation, profile, scientific productions, mobility, etc.) even if the topic remains crucial for CNES.

The post-doctoral study has to be achieved in France in a non-CNES laboratory However, a partnership with a foreign laboratory can be considered.

Since the post-doctoral CNES study topic in theses domains are not shortlisted, applicants are invited to propose first their research project and the host laboratory to the CNES responsible of the thematics for a first evaluation.

Thematics and contacts for universe sciences, microgravity and exploration



Thematics and contacts for Earth sciences, enviRonment and climate

Thematics and contacts for applications

Thematics and contacts for orbital systems

  • Electronics, Components, Materials, Atmospheric and space environement : Michel LABRUNEE
  • Mechanical and Thermal Engineering, Power Supply, Propulsion : Fabien CASTANET
  • Onboard software : Fabien CASTANET
  • Avionics architecture and system command : Denis ARRAT
  • Navigation, Telecommunications and Time-Frequency : Jean-Luc ISSLER
  • Microwave and optical scientific instrumentation : Bruno CUGNY
  • Physical principles and image processing (for earth observation) : Bruno CUGNY
  • New digital technologies (processing / exploitation / exploitation of spatial data, AI, 3D) : Nathalie DUBERNET

Then, we invite the applicants to send their complete application online (Reply to the offer) and  enclose without fail a reference letter from your PhD supervisor, a reference letter from your future lab director, a detailed CV including university education, a list of publications, a detailed description of the work undertaken in the course of your PhD studies and of your future research project in one single doc/docx/pdf file (max 10Mo) before April 1st midhnight!

NB : Please note that only post-doctoral topics in space transport systems are preselected. You can find the complete list HERE

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