The scientific scope of CDV covers all molecular and cellular aspects of biological processes in the fields of genetics, genomics, cell biology and development, microbiology and immunology, biochemistry, biology structural biology, systems biology, evolutionary biology. A significant part of the projects carried out is part of an integrative approach combining multiple approaches and different levels of analysis. The doctoral school thus promotes transdisciplinary projects and CDV welcomes researchers and doctoral students carrying out research projects in the scientific scope of the ED, whose initial trainings are not in biology.

Registering about 300 doctoral students each year, CDV relies on more than 150 research teams bringing together more than 500 researchers and teacher-researchers. These teams are located on several sites and institutes, the main ones of which are: the Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (IBPS), the Institut Curie, the Institut Pasteur, the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, the Institute of Myology of Pitié-Salpétrière, the marine biology stations of Sorbonne University,...

CDV is opened to international students with about 45% of phD students of foreign nationality.