Each year, ENSTA welcomes several hundred doctoral students to its two campuses, enabling them to pursue their research at the highest scientific level in a variety of exciting and innovative fields of innovation.

Why pursue a thesis at ENSTA?

Internationally recognized as a mark of excellence and a sign of a very high level of expertise, a Ph.D. opens the door to highly skilled positions in both the public and private sectors. In addition to providing access to the academic world, it opens up major long-term career opportunities based on the specific skills acquired during the doctoral program, which are widely recognized in the socio-economic sphere for highly skilled positions.

Within the ENSTA laboratories, doctoral students work in a cutting-edge research and innovation ecosystem. With close ties to industry (many CIFRE theses), they become part of a large, internationally recognized research community.

Key figures

300
PhD students
13
academic laboratories
27
industrial chairs and joint laboratories
Over 200
lecturers and research professors

What is a doctoral dissertation?

Available to those who have earned an MSc in Engineering, a master’s degree, or an equivalent qualification, the doctorate is a national degree awarded by an accredited institution of higher education in recognition of the research conducted by a doctoral student as part of a dissertation.

This research is generally conducted in a research laboratory at the institution (or partially in a company under CIFRE agreements), is supervised by one or more thesis advisors, and typically lasts three years. Doctoral students enroll in doctoral schools that support them throughout their research-based training. The doctorate is an internationally recognized degree.

Doctoral Schools

The doctoral schools affiliated with ENSTA are:

In the field of Humanities and Social Sciences, ENSTA doctoral students, in association with the FoAP laboratory, are affiliated with the Abbé Grégoire Doctoral School at CNAM Paris.

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Inauguration of the air-sea experimental basin, the only one of its kind in Europe

On June 24, 2026, ENSTA inaugurated a new air-sea experimental basin on its Brest campus: an exceptional facility for ocean research that combines a test basin with a drone flight enclosure. Its vast dimensions and permeability to satellite waves make it...

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A recent recipient of the Irène Joliot-Curie Prize, Maïmouna Bocoum began her distinguished academic career at ENSTA. While she has come a long way since then, she still occasionally consults her class notes when she needs to familiarize herself with a...