Presentation of the device
What is language support in the digital world?
The future of our languages depends in particular on digital networks. The development of technologies for languages makes it possible to respond to the need to reinforce the historical role of French as an international language of knowledge dissemination. Digital technology also makes it possible to meet the expression and communication needs of citizens and institutions on the one hand, and to promote the transition between French and other languages in order to encourage multilingualism on the other.
As part of its missions to promote the French language in the digital world, the General Delegation to the French Language and Languages of France (DGLFLF) - an inter-ministerial and inter-institutional entity attached to the Ministry of Culture - directs its action around three priorities:
- take into account the linguistic dimension of digital technologies
- contribute to putting these at the service of language policy
- ensure the presence of the French language on the Web and the means that encourage it
Objectives of the approach
The DGLFLF encourages all projects of a technological nature, resulting from research or industry, on French and regional languages of France.
They can focus on improving collaborative online resources, tools and technologies that help make everyday life easier for our citizens, grow our economy and strengthen our exchanges.
Am I concerned by this approach?
- Associations
- Private companies
- Local public companies
- Research organisations
The applicant must have its registered office in France and the bank account on which the payment of the subsidy will be made must be domiciled in France.
In the case of a grant renewal, the applicant will only be eligible for a new grant application once the initial grant utilization report has been completed and submitted.
In the event of cumulation of grant applications with other departments of the DGLFLF or the Ministry of Culture, the processing of the various grant applications may be shared by a single department of administration. Individual requests will be prioritized.
The following are eligible for the subsidy scheme:
- the language tools and technologies such as:
- machine translation and translation assistance
- help with writing (spelling and grammar checkers)
- voice recognition and voice commands
- speech synthesis
- indexing and annotation of documents
- the automation of metadata creation processes (summaries, keywords, categories, etc.)
- the language resources relating to:
- the enrichment of online collaborative encyclopedias or dictionaries
- the enrichment or provision of language resources available for technologies for French, French languages
- the French translation of software, websites, social networks and tools offered to users
- the structuring of existing data (especially cultural) or the enrichment of the semantic ecosystem such as the constitution of own ontologies in French
- theassessment of the place of languages, resources and technologies :
- studies and analyses on the place of French and French languages on the web
- studies and analyses on the availability of language resources or technologies on French and French languages
- comparative studies on the quality of different language technologies
Projects that do not relate directly to the French language or the regional languages of France are not eligible.
The grant may cover all capital expenditure relating to the project submitted by the applicant, apart from the operating expenditure of the applicant structure.
Procedure
The amount of the grant is determined according to the nature and quality of the project and the expenses necessary for its realization.
The overall budget allocated to the language and digital mission is around 450,000 euro per year and the median amount allocated to applicants is around 10,000 euro.
The grant is an incentive and must have a leverage effect that allows other supports to be collected.
The grants allocated by the DGLFLF are awarded on an annual basis, in a single payment.
If the grant application has been submitted before 30 November of the current year, payment may be made during the first half of the following year, depending on the nature and complexity of the case.
Files are reviewed by a selection committee, which will be sensitive to:
- innovative projects, taking into account linguistic diversity and multilingualism
- networking of partners from diverse backgrounds
- audience diversity
- number of potential users
Projects with a rendering in the final phase will be considered as a priority.
The rendering may take the form of a study, a state of the art, a research document, a software, an application, a website, a database or a mobile application.
Applications can be submitted throughout the year.
- Application deadline: November 30 of each year.
- A first budget committee is held in December or January to decide on applications received before 30 November.
- Budget adjustment commissions may be held between May and September to enable urgent grant applications to be handled, on an exceptional basis, during the current year, in the event that budgets remain available.
The project report must be sent no later than one year after the payment of the grant.
- To access the online form, click on the "Access form" button at the bottom of the page.
- Log in or create an account, then let us guide you.
Examples of projects supported previously
Supported in 2022 by the Ministry of Culture, Exploratio is a free app available on iOS and Android.
Alongside an astronaut on a mission, players discover the secrets of the French language, while solving puzzles and overcoming many challenges (puzzle, quiz, texts with holes, crosswords).
Exploratio is a fun and stimulating experience that draws on the Dictionnaire des francophones.
ParCoLab is a corpus of texts aligned in French, Serbian, English, Spanish and Occitan, intended for research in linguistics, teaching and learning languages.
It is a parallel corpus of more than 29 million words, with alignments at the level of manually checked sentences. It is freely available online and is mainly intended for scientific and educational purposes.
When one wonders about the relative importance of languages, the criterion of the number of speakers is the first to appear: what is the most spoken language in the world? But this approach poses a double problem.
On the one hand, the speaker count is not an exact science and the different sources available give different figures. Moreover, other factors play a role in determining the "weight" of languages.
The barometer of world languages is based on thirteen factors chosen because they appear to be relevant, but also because data were available for each of them.
A question?
If you have any questions about language support in the digital world, please contact:
General Delegation to the French Language and the Languages of France (DGLFLF)
Mission of languages and digital
dglflf.min@culture.gouv.fr
01 40 15 35 90
3 rue de Valois, 75001 Paris
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