PhD Funding for Algerian Students Abroad: PROFAS B+ Explained (2026)

Search for scholarships for Algerian students abroad and most English-language results are thin aggregator lists, while the programme that actually sends the most Algerian doctoral researchers abroad each year, PROFAS B+, has almost no up-to-date English coverage at all, its real documentation lives in French, scattered across individual Algerian university websites rather than one central page. Here's how PROFAS B+ actually works, the detail most lists miss about what it does and doesn't fund, and the other bilateral routes worth checking alongside it.

PROFAS B+: a co-funded Algeria-France doctoral mobility programme

PROFAS B+ is jointly financed by Algeria and France and administered by Algeria's Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MESRS) together with the French Embassy in Algeria, with Campus France Algérie providing mobility and settling-in support once you're selected. It traces back to an original 1987 programme and was relaunched in its current B+ form in 2014, described in official materials as training for research through research. By 2019, organizers reported that nearly 500 Algerian scholarship holders had joined excellence laboratories in France through it since the relaunch, a meaningful scale for a programme with so little English-language visibility.

What it actually funds: a research stay, not your whole doctorate

This is the single most important thing generic scholarship listings get wrong or leave out entirely: PROFAS B+ does not relocate your entire PhD to France. You remain registered as a doctoral student in Algeria, and PROFAS B+ funds a defined research stay inside that doctorate. Two tracks exist. The co-supervision track has historically funded single stays of roughly 7 to 12 months, aimed at finishing a thesis with support from a French research team. The joint-degree, or cotutelle, track has funded a longer total of roughly 7 to 18 months, spread across the three years of the doctorate in instalments of at least 7 months per academic year, structured around an actual joint-supervision agreement between an Algerian and a French institution. Selection in both tracks runs through a mixed jury of Algerian and French experts, based on a review of your application file and an interview, and past calls have set an upper age limit, 35 as of 31 December in the 2019 call specifically.

Who actually qualifies, and what the process looks like

Eligibility has centered on doctoral students and teacher-researchers in the final phase of their thesis, selected on excellence criteria rather than open to first-year doctoral candidates broadly. Historically, the annual call has been published jointly by MESRS and the French Embassy in Algeria, typically in the autumn or spring depending on the year, with application windows that have run anywhere from about three to four weeks once open. Applications go through your own Algerian university's international relations office (direction/vice-rectorat des relations extérieures), which handles the paperwork and liaises with MESRS and the embassy on your behalf, that office is generally the fastest, most reliable source for whether the current year's call is open and what its exact deadline is, faster than searching for a current English page that may not exist yet.

Why cotutelle and co-supervision matter beyond the funding mechanics

Beyond determining how long you're funded in France, which track you pursue shapes your actual degree outcome. A cotutelle arrangement can end in a jointly awarded or dual degree recognized by both the Algerian and French institutions, a different outcome from a co-supervision stay that supports your Algerian-registered thesis without a formal joint degree attached. If a dual-recognition outcome matters to your career plans, confirm with both your Algerian supervisor and the prospective French research team early which track they're actually set up to support, not every lab or department runs both.

Other bilateral routes worth checking alongside PROFAS B+

PROFAS B+ isn't the only funded channel Algerian students have used, though it's the most consistently documented one specifically for doctoral researchers. A Chinese government scholarship notice has, in past cycles, offered a number of full scholarships to Algerian students at the Magister's or PhD level, requiring a pre-acceptance letter from a Chinese university before applying. Algeria's Ministry has also received doctoral scholarship offers from Saudi Arabian universities under a "Study in Saudi Arabia" programme. Separately, a British Council report describes a plan for up to 500 Algerian PhD students to study in the UK on scholarships funded by the Algerian government, specifically in English language, literature, and applied linguistics. None of these three is a standing, always-open programme the way PROFAS B+ has been, check current availability through MESRS or the relevant country's own scholarship portal before planning around any single one.

A practical search order

• Confirm your doctoral registration status in Algeria first, PROFAS B+ and the cotutelle route both require you to already be enrolled in an Algerian doctoral programme.
• Check your university's international relations office directly for the current year's PROFAS B+ call, rather than relying on an English-language search result that may be several years out of date.
• In parallel, identify and contact a potential host researcher in France (or another target country) whose current work genuinely matches yours, since both the co-supervision and cotutelle tracks require that relationship to exist before you apply.
• Separately check MESRS's own announcements for any currently open bilateral scholarship offers from other countries.

That second step, identifying and reaching a specific researcher whose current work fits yours, is where GradScoutFunding fits in. It searches for professors by field and country, confirms they're actively publishing, and drafts a personalized outreach email grounded in one of their real recent papers, for you to review and send yourself. The free tier gives 100 credits with no card required, and paid credit packs are one-time purchases that never expire.

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