Habilitation to supervise research

Presentation

The Habilitation to Supervise Research is a national diploma awarded to holders of a doctorate. It is a diploma issued by PSL University under the auspices of the EPHE. It is a prerequisite for applying for positions of university professor or director of research at the CNRS; it may be required to apply for the rank of director of studies at the EPHE-PSL.

Nevertheless, more than a simple diploma, the HDR certifies the ability to supervise research in an individual and collective way. Registration for the HDR is therefore, in general, requested at the end of a first academic experience of teaching and research. The documents provided at the time of the application for registration must attest to the acquisition of this ability to supervise research.
The main documents of the HDR file are: 1) the summary thesis and 2) an unpublished thesis (more for the SHS than for the SVT).

The summary thesis, which is usually between 80 and 150 pages long, must give an account of how the candidate has acquired this ability to conduct his or her own research and to supervise that of others. Rather tha biography, candidates should reflect on the methodologies implemented in their research, their intellectual evolution and their post-doctoral research projects. The synthesis thesis may also present proposals for future research.

The unpublished dissertation, which is not required in SVT, is the presentation of the results of new research carried out since the doctorate. It is an unpublished work in the sense that the HDR jury must be the first judge of these new works (so that it is not possible to present a book whose publication would be concomitant with the defense). The dissertation does not have to be in the form of a book ready for publication, but may consist of "research files".

The HDR commission will assess the candidate's academic experience (publications, teaching and supervision experience, and international influence); ability to implement research strategies capable of producing results; the scientific and literary quality of unpublished and synthesis memoirs.
The HDR Commission gives a favourable or unfavourable opinion on the registration in HDR, but the final decision rests with the Scientific Council of the EPHE-PSL.