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Among the 15,000 PhDs who graduate each year in France, very few choose to become entrepreneurs (4%). To encourage entrepreneuship among these young graduates and support doubling the number of deeptech start-ups, the government established the i-PhD competition in partnership with BPI France and ADEME. I-PhD, a new event, complements the i-Lab competition, which helps technology transfer, and i-Nov, which supports innovative projects by start-ups and small businesses. I-PhD, i-Lab and i-Nov each address a particular stage of innovative projects, and together they form the three services of the "innovation competition" carried out by the government under the Deeptech Plan.
i-PhD is only for young researchers or PhD students who wish to set up a deeptech startup through technology transfer of research results. Each winner obtains individual and collective support for 12 months, long enough to become familiar with the codes of the entrepreneurial world and to assess the potential of a scientific project outside the laboratory.

For its first session in 2020, the jury of the competition rewarded 29 winners and awarded 7 grand prizes; three young researchers from PSL were rewarded their work. The 2021 session of the competition is open until March 9, 2021.

2020 i-PhD winners

Mickael Pruvost - TOUCHEE project (ESPCI Paris- PSL), won the Grand Prix.

Slava Mazlin - UltraSight (ESPCI Paris- PSL) -  Won the Grand Prix

Jean-Baptiste Dupin - Evobiome (ESPCI Paris- PSL)