National Library of France - Mark Pigott Research Grant

Mark Pigott Research Grant for digital humanities

You get 15,000 EUR for one academic year to run a research project at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) in Paris, starting 1 October. The money comes in two halves of 7,500 EUR: one in November, the other after you finish your research the following autumn. You also become a "chercheur associé" (associated researcher) at the BnF. This gives you a workplace and IT access, an academic supervisor in your department, privileged access to the collections, and entry to the library's researcher network. The grant is funded by the BnF patron Mark Pigott and has run since 2014.

Your project must use the BnF's digital collections, such as Gallica or its web archives, and apply modern analysis methods: data mining, text and image analysis, natural language processing, machine learning, network analysis or similar. You can also use traditional approaches alongside these. Propose your own topic or pick one the BnF suggests.

Who can apply

• Research background: You are enrolled in a research master's (master 2) or a doctorate, or finished one within the last three years. Alternatively, you are a tenured academic, researcher or engineer, or you do research through personal or professional work (including artistic work) and have publications or talks to show for it.
• Field of study: Digital humanities and artificial intelligence applied to the BnF's collections, mainly in history, art history and cultural studies.
• On-site work: You can travel to the BnF in Paris as often as your project needs.
• Not a BnF employee: You are not on a permanent or contract post at the BnF, and you do not hold a doctoral contract in the award year.
• Nationality: Any nationality can apply, and both French and foreign study programmes count.
• Age: No age limit. Where two applications are equally strong, early-career researchers are preferred.

How to apply

You apply online through the SciencesCall platform. Submit one PDF with your CV, a project description in French of up to five pages, and a one-page plan for using the results. The deadline is 4 May. A specialist jury reviews the applications in June, and the BnF's president makes the final decision.

How realistic are your chances?

This grant is narrowly cut: your project must draw on the BnF's own digital collections and use computational methods, so only researchers with a clear fit will apply. If your topic genuinely connects to those collections and your five-page proposal is precise and well argued, your prospects are solid. As a single high-profile award, it favours a sharp, methodologically strong dossier over a broad one, and early-career researchers get priority when applications are otherwise equal.