The Culture-Inria convention is a funding mechanism for research and development (R&D) in digital sciences applied to culture, proposed to the institutional ecosystem of the Ministry of Culture.
Presentation of the device
What is the Culture-Inria convention?
The Ministry of Culture has entered into a partnership with theInstitut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (Inria), to stimulate R&D between cultural institutions and the digital science research world.
With a staff of some 2,000 researchers in 170 teams, Inria is the only public institution entirely dedicated to digital sciences, covering the whole field: algorithmy, artificial intelligence, human-machine interaction, semantic web, etc.
This partnership takes the form of a framework agreement which makes it possible to speed up and simplify the setting up of R&D projects between the Ministry and its network of supervised establishments on the one hand, and the Research Institute on the other.
Objectives of the approach
The main objectives of this cooperation are to:
- to form an interface between the world of cultural actors and that of researchers in digital sciences and thus promote interdisciplinarity
- help cultural actors to appropriate the culture of innovation and facilitate the removal of technological barriers in all digital fields
- promote the technological transfer of Inria’s research teams to cultural stakeholders and pool national efforts, know-how and resources in R&D
The process
It is possible to submit an R&D project throughout the year. The schedule is determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on the nature of the project.
As examples, here are some technological areas addressed in the framework of this device: Semantic Web (ontologies, alignment and reconciliation of data...), 3D (digitization, modeling...), Virtual/ Augmented/ Mixed Reality, machine learning and deep learning, etc.
Am I concerned by this approach?
- Public institutions/ State services
- Research organisations
The Culture-Inria Convention concerns:
- the services of the Ministry of Culture: central administration, drac and services with national competence (SCN)
- public institutions (PE) under supervision
- the following organizations:
- ARTE
- National Circus Arts Centre
- IRCAM
- France Médias Monde
- France Télévisions
- Radio France
- Simplified Joint Stock Company Palais de Tokyo
- Simplified joint stock company Pass Culture
Projects must be research or innovation, namely:
- to remove a technological barrier identified in the field of cultural and linguistic applications
- and/or to test new concepts or new uses that have both an impact in the cultural sector and an interest in digital sciences
They must also be of one or more of the following types:
- Production of a state of the art
- Technology transfer (from an Inria research team to a cultural actor)
- Specific computer development (interface prototype, creation of algorithms, etc.)
- Exploitation and dissemination of research results
For the sake of progressivity, a project may be subject to a preliminary phase and then a thorough phaseeach phase is subsidized.
Procedure
Two project formats are proposed, depending on their level of complexity. The grant amount is:
Preliminary or short project, a priori feasible in 6 months (example: state of the art)
- The flat-rate unit of work is €18,000, to be paid to Inria.
- The subsidy by the Ministry of Culture cannot exceed €14,400, or at least €3,600 to be paid by the cultural structure behind the project.
In-depth or long project, a priori feasible in 12 months (example: prototype development)
- The flat-rate unit of work is €77,000, to be paid to Inria.
- The subsidy by the Ministry of Culture may not exceed €61,600, or at least €15,400 to be paid by the cultural structure sponsoring the project.
The grant does not directly finance the cultural structure behind the project, but supports a significant portion (up to 80%) of the lump sum allocated to the Inria team for the project.
The description sheet the project, developed by the requesting cultural structure (see "How to file a file?" below), is reviewed by a group of experts from the Ministry of Culture and Inria.
This stage of preselection helps to ensure the eligibility of the project and to pre-assess it according to the following criteria:
- interest in uses, trades and cultural heritage
- interest in advancing digital science and technology
- reusability of the results of the project by other actors than the project leaders
- pooling of resources between project holders
- interdisciplinarity of the projects
- taking into account transfer, hosting, maintenance and sustainability constraints
- anticipation of the deployment phase of innovations within cultural institutions
The Culture-Inria system is an open window: applications are submitted throughout the year.
A notification of the processing of the application shall be sent at the latest within one week of the submission of the project description sheet.
The first step in the process is the submission of the project description sheet.
- To download the form of the descriptive sheet, click on the button "Access the form (descriptive sheet)".
- Fill in the form and send it by email to: mcc-inria@culture.gouv.fr.
If the project is pre-selected, the interested Inria team, in conjunction with the Ministry of Culture, contacts the requesting cultural structure.
A second step for the elaboration of a research agreement then opens. The drafting of the convention results from close collaboration between the three parties: cultural actor, Inria team and Ministry of Culture. It allows to refine and consolidate, by mutual agreement, the description of the project, the contribution of the teams concerned, the methodology and the provisional schedule. The duration of this step depends on both the complexity of the project and the availability of the parties.
NB: In the Culture-Inria framework agreement, the realization of a project is not a service, but a scientific collaboration, formalized by a research agreement. One of the essential conditions for setting up a convention is that an Inria team is interested in the proposed research topic.
A question?
If you have any questions about the Culture-Inria Convention, please contact:
Digital Department
Digital Department for Cultural Policy Transformation and Data Administration
mcc-inria@culture.gouv.fr