In the sector of university scientific research, the Ministry of Higher Education acts on two levels; national and international :

A- On the national level

  - Acquisition of heavy scientific equipments for regional and national use to reinforce the research and training structures. The heavy equipments aquired have been integrated in structures called "common service units for research"(CSUR), to which a complementary and direct financial support is brought enabling them to function in better conditions.

   - Since 1994, a basic support have been brought to university research teams, integrated in structures called Research Teams (RT), on the basis of their contribution to graduate research training.

   - Since 1999, the provisions of the orientation law n° 96-6, January 31th, 1996, relative to scientific resarch and technological development, have been increasingly introduced, permitting the structuring of the research activities within the research structures (Research Units -RU- and Research Laboratories -RL-).

   - To improve the national capacities of research supervision and endow training system with a larger capacity of creativity and inventiveness, Doctoral Schools were created for which an annual budget of functioning has been allocated, allowing them to carry out effectively their missions.

B- On the international level

Given the bilateral character of the cooperation (partnership, co-financing, etc ) and the specific contracted agreements, the formula used can only be applied to the type of projects with France (CMCU, CNRS, INSERM, INRIA ) and Marrocco (CMPTM).

Moreover, the co-direction of thesis has been introduced by means of a specific convention between Tunisian and foreign institutions concerned. It constitutes, with research projects in cooperation, a strong instrument centred on training and research in all disciplines. They contribute to the effort undertaken by the Ministry to ensure, permanently, doctoral training of future teachers-researchers and researchers and permit to consolidate the links between the Tunisian teachers-researchers and researchers and their counterpart in partners-countries.