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The rush is over. You’ve fine-tuned your research statement, triple-checked your CV, and agonized over every word in your application. Now, with a sigh of relief, you’ve hit submit. Maybe you took a well-deserved break, a weekend off, or just an evening with something other than application stress on your mind.

But now the question: what comes next?

The ultimate hope, of course, is to be selected for an audition and, eventually, land the job. However, the auditions won’t happen until early April. So, let’s break down what’s happening behind the scenes in the meantime.

The General calendar

We’ve previously provided a broad overview of the CNRS concours process in this blog post. Now, as we step into early February 2025, the specific calendar for the CRCN concours of Section 17 has been updated. You can find the latest details on the Section 17 calendar website by searching for “Calendrier prévisionnel des concours 2025”.

Here are the key dates relevant to the CRCN concours 2025 for Section 17:

  • 10 January 2025 (13h00 CET): Application deadline
  • 16 January 2025: Instance d’équivalence et bureau de jury - Qualification equivalence committee
  • 24 au 28 February 2025 : Jury d’admissibilité sur dossier (JAD) - Admission to auditions based on application files
  • 31 March to 4 April 2025: Auditions
  • 7 and 8 April 2025: Jury d’admissibilité (JA)
  • 29 April 2025: Auditions and jury d’admissibilité for the concours fléché 17/03.

A quick note on the last point: the poste fléché follows the same general structure, but its auditions and JA are conducted later. We won’t go into further detail about this here.

The Qualification Equivalence Instance

The first post-submission step is the verification of diplomas for all applicants. To be eligible for the concours, candidates must hold one of the following French degrees, as stated in the 2025 CNRS concours guide, page 6:

  • Doctorate
  • State or third-cycle doctorate
  • Engineering doctorate
  • Research diploma in odontology (DERSO)
  • Research diploma in human biology (DERBH)

Alternatively, candidates may qualify if they hold a foreign degree deemed equivalent to one of the above qualifications:

“Or hold a foreign university qualification deemed to be equivalent to one of the above qualifications”

Or they can be admitted to the concours based on experience and qualifications:

“Or have scientific qualifications and work experience deemed to be equivalent to the above qualifications.”

During the instance d’équivalence, which took place on 16 January for Section 17 this year, the hiring committee reviews all submitted diplomas and evaluates their equivalence with the official requirements. The outcome is a list of candidates labeled “admis/es à concourir”, meaning they are officially allowed to participate in the concours selection process. This list will be published on the official CNRS concours des chercheurs website, though it has not yet been released at the time of writing.

If you find your name on this list, congratulations! You didn’t mess up your diploma submission, and you’re still in the race. There’s nothing else you need to do at this stage.

Jury d’admissibilité sur dossier (JAD) - Selection for Auditions

Next comes the actual review of the submitted application files. This is an intense process that takes place between the instance d’équivalence and the final week of February when the committee meets to deliberate on candidates.

The result of this evaluation is a list of applicants who are “admis/es à poursuivre” (admitted to proceed), also labelled “auditionné/e/s” (selected for an audition). Those invited to audition will be notified, and their names will be published on the CNRS concours website. Note how each new year’s concours’ information overwrites the past years info on this website.

Additionally, this list has been posted on the SNCS-FSU researchers’ union website since 2021, circulated via the SF2A mailing list, and posted on the Section 17 website.

Auditions

Auditions take place in a single week in Paris. During the JAD, the committee decides how many applicants to invite.

💡 While only a subset of the committee may have seen your entire application file beforehand, every member will see your CV during the auditions. Therefore, having a well-structured and complete CV that highlights all critical aspects of your career is essential.

We plan to cover the audition process in greater detail in a future blog post.

(As a side note: The 2025 applicants’ guide refers to auditions as “hearings” and the application file simply as “file.” The “on file” in ‘”Jury of admissibility on file” in the English version of the applicants guide also doesn’t really mean what they think it means, but we’ll roll with it…)

Jury d’admissibilité (JA) - Admission Panel

Once the auditions conclude, the committee determines who is “admissible” (~eligible) - the list of candidates who will receive the job offer unless they decline. Additionally, a few candidates are placed on a waitlist.

Technically, this list is submitted to CNRS leadership, who finalize the laureates. However, in practice, the eligible candidates as defined by the admission panel almost always become the final hires.

As before, this list will be published on the CNRS concours des chercheurs website, the SNCS-FSU website, the Section 17 website, and circulated via the SF2A mailing list.

What You Can Do Now

For the moment, lean back and proceed with your usual work. Nothing more happens until early March, when the audition invitations are released. If you’re among the lucky ones invited, that’s when you’ll need to get active in preparation.

If you don’t see your name on the admis à concourir list once it’s published, you’ll have to wait until the end of this year’s concours process to inquire about any issues with your application.

Until then, enjoy this relatively quiet period - take a breather, focus on your research, and recharge for what comes next!

Links:

Updated:

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