Composition

The ISC is made up of at least two members who are independent of the thesis supervisor and the doctoral student’s research project. The minimum number of members is as follows :

• One member who may belong to the doctoral student’s host laboratory (but not to the same team),
• One member from outside the doctoral student’s host laboratory.

♦ At least one of them must be an academic (teacher-researcher or researcher) holding the HDR.

♦ Additionally, one of the members must be familiar with the field of the thesis, while the other may be distant from it (the aim is for the ISC to provide a relevant opinion on the content of the work, without the interviews turning into scientific meetings between specialists).

The composition of the ISC must be co-constructed by the doctoral student and his/her supervisory team*.

♦ From a practical point of view, the DS considers it desirable for the doctoral student to propose at least one member of the ISC.

♦ To facilitate relations, we also recommend that at least one member be geographically close.

♦ ISC members may be part of the thesis jury but may not be rapporteurs.

Form available in the “PSIME FORM”section

*In practical terms, the key is to avoid the doctoral student feeling that the ISC members are too close to the thesis director (whether through personal affinity, thematic proximity, hierarchical links, etc.), which could prevent the student from expressing themselves freely. Similarly, the thesis director should not feel that the ISC members are taking an inquisitive stance towards their supervisory work. In both cases, the expected benefits of this mechanism would not be realised. Ideally, the ISC should adopt a ‘supportive’ stance, whether towards the doctoral student or the thesis supervisor.