The IUF application will open on 2 September 2024 and close on 4 November 2024. All the documents needed for the competition will be available on 2 September on the dedicated application here

It should be noted that the Law on Research Programming (LPR), enacted on 24 December 2020, has led to a significant increase in the number of IUF professorships since the 2023 competition, with the number of annual professorships rising from 110 to 200.

Thus, for the 2025 campaign, the following are open to competition:

100 Junior Chairs, including 80 Fundamental Chairs, 15 Innovation Chairs* and 5 Scientific Mediation Chairs*;
100 Senior Chairs, including 80 Fundamental Chairs, 15 Innovation Chairs and 5 Science Mediation Chairs.

* The exact definitions of these new chairs can be found in the circular published in the BOESR on 27 June 2024:

https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/fr/bo/2024/Hebdo26/ESRS2415046C

This unprecedented increase in the number of IUF positions should encourage even more talented teacher-researchers to apply for this scheme, which offers them time (a 2/3 service release for five years) and various other financial benefits to carry out creative and ambitious research projects, often interdisciplinary or at the frontiers of new disciplines. These projects are evaluated and selected by international juries, who draw up the list of IUF laureates each year.

As a reminder, the three essential missions of the IUF are :

To encourage institutions and teacher-researchers to achieve excellence in research, innovation and mediation, with the positive consequences that can be expected for teaching, the training of young researchers and, more generally, the dissemination and transfer of knowledge to society;
Contribute to the feminisation of the research sector,
Contribute to a balanced distribution of university research in the country and therefore to a policy of scientific networking of the territory.