The Plinius Cursus program is organized around four major areas:

  • Mandatory workshops and seminars.
  • The so-called dry workshops: scientific communication, Management, Interdisciplinary funding projects …
  • Practical training courses from ½ day to 5 days.
  • A student life managed by the students themselves: individual follow-up committees (CSI), financial and institutional facilities for the organisation of stays abroad, organisation of congresses including the JSM3 “Junior Scientists Microbiology Meeting of Marseille” and more generally the animation of the social and scientific life of the institute.

The Plinius Cursus oversees 50% of the doctoral training of the IM2B students enrolled in the Life Sciences and Health (ED62), Chemical Sciences (ED250) and Environmental Sciences (ED251) doctoral schools. During your Ph.D., you will have to follow 50 hours of teaching within your doctoral school and the Plinius Cursus course. To validate it and be able to defend your thesis, you will have to:

  • Follow the two compulsory training courses. These are the “Good Practices and Ethics in Science” workshop, which takes place over one day in the second year of your thesis, and the cycle of conferences and workshops that introduce you to the process of creating a company, starting from the discoveries obtained at the level of fundamental research to the creation of startups.
  • Participate in two dry workshops.
  • Complete 8 days of practical training including 2 days on techniques outside your research theme.

The goal of the Plinius Cursus is to facilitate the progress and completion of your thesis while preparing your future professional career. To do so, you will elaborate your professional project by choosing from a list of workshops and practical training courses proposed in collaboration with your thesis director, your sponsor or referee and, if you wish, the Plinius Cursus steering committee member of your unit/team. This professional project will be “provisional” and may be modified according to the progress and evolution of your thesis subject as well as your aspirations for the post-thesis period. To best meet your training needs, the number of participants will not be limited for all workshops. If this number exceeds the capacity of the training, it can be duplicated according to the availability of the speakers. Otherwise, a selection will be made according to your motivation and your professional project and you will be given priority for the next session. Although the official language of the Plinius Cursus is English, depending on the lecturers, some courses are currently offered only in French. In other cases, the vocabulary used is so specialized that it requires a thorough knowledge of English. In this type of case, the trainings will be offered in French for French speakers and in English for non-French speakers. Wherever possible, we have indicated the language used. If this is not the case, we advise you to contact the speakers before registering.

Please note that the 40 hours of teaching training that instructors (contractual with teaching mission, CME) must attend are deducted from the 50 hours within the doctoral school to which they are attached.

Follow us

© 2025 Plinius Cursus - All rights reserved