CNRST — the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique — is Morocco’s national scientific research body, responsible for coordinating, funding, and evaluating research activity across the country’s universities and research centers. For researchers and research administrators working with or seeking funding from Morocco, CNRST is usually the first stop, whether the goal is a doctoral scholarship, a priority-area research grant, or an international joint-project call.
This guide covers what CNRST is and how it is structured, its main funding instruments, how it fits into Morocco’s broader national research strategy, and practical guidance for researchers pursuing Moroccan funding or collaboration.
What Is CNRST?
CNRST is a Moroccan public institution, based in Rabat, that acts as the operational arm for national scientific and technical research policy. It sits under Morocco’s Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation (Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur, de la Recherche Scientifique et de l’Innovation, MESRSI), and its remit spans several distinct functions that, in many other national systems, are split across separate agencies:
- Funding — administering grants, scholarships, and project calls for researchers at Moroccan public universities and research institutions.
- Coordination and evaluation — helping structure the national research landscape, including the accreditation of research laboratories and centers.
- Documentation and scientific information — CNRST also operates as Morocco’s national scientific and technical information hub.
- International cooperation — serving as a counterpart institution for bilateral and multilateral research-cooperation agreements and joint call programmes.
A note on naming: CNRST (Morocco) is easy to confuse with CNRS, France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique — the two are unrelated institutions in different countries with similarly translated names (“national center for scientific research”). If you are researching French funding or research-operator relationships, you want the France-focused CNRS guide instead; this page covers the Moroccan institution specifically.
CNRST’s Structure and Governance
CNRST operates as a public establishment under government oversight, with its funding and programme activity organized under a “Financement de la recherche” (research funding) division on its own site (cnrst.ma), split broadly into national programmes and international cooperation. Individual funding programmes are typically launched through management conventions signed jointly by CNRST, MESRSI, and — where multi-year scholarship funding is involved — the Ministry of Finance, which is how, for example, its flagship doctoral scholarship programme was established.
Because CNRST funds researchers based at Moroccan public universities and research institutions rather than acting as an independent grant-making foundation for individuals outside that system, most of its programmes are administered through the applicant’s home institution — a structure similar to how many national research councils route funding through a university’s research office rather than directly to an individual.
Main Funding Instruments and Programmes
CNRST’s funding portfolio covers several distinct instrument types. Programme names, eligibility windows, and funding levels are set by CNRST and can change between annual calls — always confirm current terms directly on cnrst.ma or through your institution’s research office before relying on any figure below.
PBER — Programme de Bourses d’Excellence de Recherche (Doctoral Excellence Scholarships)
PBER is CNRST’s flagship doctoral scholarship programme, established through a management convention between CNRST, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and the Ministry of Finance. It is designed to encourage high-performing Master’s degree holders to pursue a doctorate at a Moroccan university. As documented by CNRST, the programme has historically funded on the order of 300 scholarships per year, for a non-renewable term of 36 months, with a monthly stipend paid by CNRST. Since 2014, CNRST has run PBER through a fully digitized, online application platform rather than paper submissions. Eligibility, the exact stipend amount, and the annual scholarship quota are set per call — confirm the current cycle’s terms on CNRST’s own site rather than relying on prior-year figures.
PPR — Programme Prioritaire de Recherche (Priority Research Programme)
PPR (formally, “Recherche et développement technologique dans les domaines prioritaires”) is CNRST’s mechanism for funding research and technological development in areas the government has designated as national priorities. Rather than an open, discipline-agnostic call, PPR channels funding toward socio-economically or technologically significant research themes identified as strategic priorities for Morocco — the closest equivalent, structurally, to a national mission-oriented or strategic-priority funding stream in other countries’ research-council systems.
Research Structures, Laboratory Support, and Excellence Awards
Beyond PBER and PPR, CNRST supports the creation and strengthening of accredited research structures and laboratories at Moroccan universities, and runs research-excellence recognition programmes. Collectively, CNRST describes administering on the order of 200 grants, scholarships, and awards annually across its various programmes — a figure that spans everything from doctoral scholarships to lab-support grants, so it should not be read as any single programme’s size.
International Cooperation and Joint Project Calls
CNRST is Morocco’s typical counterpart institution for bilateral and multilateral research-cooperation agreements, and it runs joint call programmes with partner countries’ funding or research agencies to support collaborative projects between Moroccan researchers and international counterparts. These calls are listed under CNRST’s international-cooperation and “other funding opportunities” pages and vary year to year depending on which bilateral agreements are active. Morocco-based researchers and institutions are also frequently engaged in EU framework programmes (Horizon Europe and its predecessors) as non-EU partner-country participants, separately from CNRST’s own bilateral calls — see CASRAI’s guide to co-funding and matching-funds requirements in international collaborative grants if you are structuring a joint budget across a Moroccan and a non-Moroccan institution.
CNRST and Morocco’s National Research Strategy
CNRST does not set national research policy on its own — that sits with MESRSI, the ministry it reports to — but it is the principal implementing body for translating ministry-level research and innovation priorities into funded programmes on the ground. This is the same basic pattern seen across many national systems in this cluster: a ministry sets strategic direction and priority areas, and a semi-autonomous funding/coordinating body (CNRST in Morocco’s case) turns that direction into calls, scholarships, and accreditation decisions researchers can actually apply to. PPR’s organization around government-designated priority themes, rather than an open discipline-agnostic call, is the clearest example of that translation in practice: the priority list itself is a direct expression of national strategic priorities, and PPR is the funding instrument built to act on it.
Practical Guidance for Researchers Seeking Moroccan Funding or Collaboration
- Work through your institution. Most CNRST programmes are administered through the applicant’s home university or research institution rather than as direct individual applications — start with your institution’s research office or graduate school, which will typically already have a relationship with CNRST and know current call deadlines.
- Check the current call before citing any figure. Scholarship stipends, quotas, and eligibility windows are set per annual cycle. Treat programme names (PBER, PPR) as stable, but treat amounts and dates as needing a fresh check against cnrst.ma or your institutional partner for the cycle you’re applying in.
- Distinguish CNRST’s own calls from Morocco’s participation in EU/international programmes. A Moroccan co-investigator on a Horizon Europe consortium, for example, is operating under EU rules and eligibility, not a CNRST programme — even though CNRST may be a relevant national contact point or co-funder for that kind of collaboration.
- If you are a non-Moroccan researcher seeking a Moroccan partner, CNRST’s international-cooperation calls and bilateral agreements are the most direct route; your own funder’s international/collaborative-grant guidance and your institution’s international office are the other half of that equation.
- Watch for the “CNRS vs. CNRST” mix-up when searching — searches for “CNRS Morocco” sometimes surface CNRST results and vice versa with the French CNRS; confirm which country’s institution you actually need before applying.
How CNRST Fits Among Other National Funders
CNRST is one of many national research funding and coordinating bodies CASRAI covers as part of an ongoing series on international funders — see the Global Research Council guide for how national funders coordinate policy internationally, and comparable national-funder profiles including KFAS (Kuwait), Pakistan’s HEC, and Estonia’s ETAg. As with those profiles, the goal here is orientation for a researcher or research administrator who needs to understand a specific national system quickly, not a substitute for that funder’s own current call documentation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CNRST the same as CNRS in France?
No. CNRST (Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique) is Morocco’s national research funding and coordinating body. CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) is France’s much larger national research organization, which itself directly operates research laboratories rather than functioning primarily as a funder. The names translate similarly but the institutions, countries, and roles are distinct — see CASRAI’s CNRS guide for the French institution.
Can researchers outside Morocco apply directly to CNRST programmes?
Most CNRST funding, including PBER, is aimed at researchers and doctoral candidates based at Moroccan public universities and research institutions. International researchers typically engage with CNRST through joint international-cooperation calls, bilateral agreements, or by partnering with a Moroccan institution, rather than through direct individual application to Morocco-domestic programmes — confirm eligibility on the specific call you’re considering.
What is the difference between PBER and PPR?
PBER is a doctoral scholarship programme funding individual PhD candidates at Moroccan universities. PPR is a research-project funding programme organized around government-designated national priority research themes. They serve different purposes and different applicant types — PBER funds people (doctoral students), PPR funds projects in priority areas.
Which ministry does CNRST report to?
CNRST operates under Morocco’s Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation (MESRSI).
