ADUM

What ADUM does

ADUM (Accès Doctorat Unique et Mutualisé) is a French non-profit doctoral management platform established in 1999 and hosted by Association Contact, a non-profit association based in Saint Gély du Fesc, France. The platform serves as a shared web-based management tool and database for doctoral education stakeholders across France, including doctoral candidates, PhD holders, thesis supervisors, laboratory directors, doctoral school leadership, administrative staff, and research directors. As of February 2025, ADUM connects 227 doctoral schools and 112 higher education institutions, tracking 50,252 ongoing theses and recording 10,958 thesis defenses in 2024 across all disciplines, with geographic coverage spanning all major French regions including Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille, Grenoble, and overseas territories such as La Réunion and Guyane.

The platform's core products are the Espace Personnel ADUM, an individual portal that handles thesis registration, re-registration, defense procedures, administrative document submission, training enrollment, skills portfolio development, and online publication of theses via theses.fr, and the ADUM Network, which enables institutional coordination, population management, ministry-facing statistics, training management, website creation, and skills-based doctor search for recruiting enterprises. Data quality is certified by authorized personnel at participating institutions, and the platform is GDPR-compliant with cookies limited to session management.

ADUM's business model is structured around institutional access services with a recurring subscription characterization, although no pricing is publicly disclosed and the platform is described as a free public service for the French doctoral ecosystem. The organization is supported by participating higher education institutions rather than external venture or private equity capital. Distribution is entirely digital via adum.fr, with self-serve individual access for doctoral students and direct institutional relationships with regional doctoral college networks across France.

Name

ADUM

Legal name

Association Contact

Website

https://adum.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ADUM is a French non-profit doctoral management platform serving 227 doctoral schools and 112 higher education institutions, providing thesis lifecycle management, skills portfolios, and verified PhD recruitment tools for the French doctoral ecosystem.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Management Software

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113), Educational Services (611)

akta.pro primary industry

Management Research Institutes & Doctoral (PhD/DBA) Programs (EDAHAHAO)

akta.pro secondary industries

Application Planning, Document Management & Submission Tools (EDAFAMAC), Essay, Resume & Portfolio Coaching Platforms (EDAFAMAD)

Keywords

• Doctoral management platform
• Higher education software
• Thesis administration system
• PhD recruitment database
• Doctoral school network

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Institutional Access Services: ADUM provides access to doctoral schools and higher education institutions. The platform is described as a shared management tool with data certified by authorized personnel of participating institutions.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

ADUM provides a web-based doctoral management platform that combines a personal account portal (Espace Personnel ADUM) for PhD candidates with a shared institutional network (ADUM Network) connecting 227 doctoral schools and 112 higher education institutions across France. The platform centralizes thesis registration, re-registration, administrative document submission, skills portfolio building, training enrollment, and online thesis publication via theses.fr integration. It also serves as a verified PhD competency database used by companies for skills-based recruitment.

Product overview

ADUM is a unified doctoral management platform providing a comprehensive ecosystem for PhD candidates and institutional stakeholders. The platform consists of two interconnected core offerings: (1) the personal space (Espace Personnel ADUM) for individual doctoral candidates to manage their thesis lifecycle, access training, build skills portfolios, and publish research; and (2) the ADUM Network enabling institutional coordination across French doctoral schools. As of February 2025, the platform manages 50,252 ongoing theses and 10,958 defenses from 2024.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Espace Personnel ADUM (Personal ADUM Space)

Quantifiable outcome

• 50,252 ongoing theses managed on the platform as of February 2025
• +2 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Sorbonne UniversitécoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor French university participating in the ADUM network with multiple doctoral schools (ED 391, ED 386, ED 393, etc.) and extensive research programs across sciences, humanities, and medicine.
• Université Paris-SaclaycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLeading French university with numerous doctoral schools (EDMH, CBMS, BIOSIGNE, SDSV, etc.) serving as a major partner in the ADUM network.
• Université Grenoble AlpescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor research university network with doctoral schools in physics, chemistry, life sciences, and humanities participating in ADUM.
• Université de ToulousecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerToulouse university network including Toulouse 1, Toulouse 2, Toulouse 3, ISAE, INSA, and INPT with doctoral schools in sciences, humanities, and management.
• Université de BordeauxcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProminent French university with doctoral schools covering law, economics, mathematics, chemistry, environmental sciences, health sciences, and engineering.
• Université de LillecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNorthern France university with doctoral colleges (ED BSL, ED SHS, ED SESAM, ED SJPG, ED SMRE, ED ENGSYS, ED MADIS) participating in ADUM.
• Université de LyoncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLyon university consortium including Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lumière Lyon 2, Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Jean Monnet Saint Etienne, ENS Lyon, INSA Lyon, VetAgro Sup, and others.
• theses.frcoreTechnology or IntegrationNational French thesis repository integrated with ADUM for online publication of doctoral research. ADUM enables direct thesis publication to this platform.
• Association ContactcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOriginal founding organization - associative project of young PhDs from Montpellier (1999) who created the directory. Continues to host and manage the ADUM service.
• Université de MontpelliercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor southern French university with doctoral schools in health, biology, and life sciences participating in the ADUM network.
• Université de LorrainecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEastern French university network with doctoral schools (BIOSE, C2MP, HNFB, IAEM, SIMPPE, SIReNa, SJPEG, SLTC) participating in ADUM.
• PSL UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerParis Sciences et Lettres university combining elite institutions including Mines ParisTech, ENS, Chimie ParisTech, ESPCI, Institut Curie, Observatoire de Paris, Dauphine, and Collège de France.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Academic Positions: Global careers platform for academic and research positions, including PhD students and doctorate holders. Comparable to ADUM's 'Emploi' (jobs) section, both serving recruitment of doctoral talent, though Academic Positions operates internationally while ADUM is France-only.
• HigherEdJobs: Job board specializing in academic and higher education positions, including research and faculty roles. Comparable to ADUM in serving academic recruitment, though more US-focused and broader in scope than ADUM's French doctoral niche.

Emerging players

• Adoc Talent Management: European doctoral talent network connecting PhD students with employers for internships and recruitment. Directly comparable to ADUM's enterprise/recruiter functionality for skills-based doctor search, operating as a complementary PhD-focused employment platform.
• ORCID: Non-profit registry of persistent digital identifiers for researchers, integrated into research workflows globally. Comparable to ADUM in providing verified researcher identity and profile infrastructure for the academic ecosystem, with ORCID serving a similar role internationally that ADUM serves in France.
• Pure (Elsevier): Elsevier's research information management platform used by universities to showcase research outputs, profiles, and expertise. Comparable to ADUM in providing institutional research profiles and verified scholarly data, with potential overlap in serving universities' doctoral/researcher profile needs.
• Symplectic (Clarivate): Research information management system tracking scholarly outputs, grants, and researcher profiles at universities. Comparable to ADUM in managing academic researcher data and institutional research workflows, though focused on faculty/research-active staff rather than doctoral candidates specifically.

Regional players

• Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur (ABES): French national agency operating academic bibliographic databases (theses.fr, SUDOC, STAR) for French higher education. Directly comparable to ADUM as national doctoral/thesis infrastructure, with theses.fr integration making ABES a particularly close ecosystem partner and potential substitute.
• Agence de Mutualisation des Universités et Établissements (AMUE): French public agency providing IT and administrative services to universities and higher education establishments. Comparable to ADUM as a shared-services infrastructure provider embedded in the French higher education system, though serving a broader administrative scope beyond doctoral management.

Broad incumbents

• Ellucian Banner: Leading student information system used by universities worldwide for enrollment, records, and student services. Comparable to ADUM in managing doctoral student registration and academic records, though Ellucian serves the broader student population rather than doctoral candidates specifically.
• Workday Student: Cloud-based student information system serving universities with enrollment, academic records, and student lifecycle management. Comparable to ADUM in managing doctoral student administrative workflows, though Workday Student serves the full student lifecycle across institutions globally.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/adum

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ADUM