* This call is currently closed, because funding capacity has been reached for this round. We are still welcoming submissions for funding and it will be taken in account during the next round of funding.
The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) is a new research infrastructure set up by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) as part of the new South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR). This centre focuses on the digitisation of language resources, and the high-level training of scholars in methodological aspects related to the use of digital language resources in research and development endeavours.
In order to achieve these aims, SADiLaR runs:
As part of SADiLaR's enabling function, this call aims to:
All projects must adhere to the following criteria:
Projects can apply for motivated funding of between R50,000 and R200,000 per project, and project deliverables must be submitted primarily before October 2023.
The funding can be used to cover any of the following activities, where the activities are specifically related to the deliverables specified in the project proposal:
In addition to funding the development of data through this open call, SADiLaR also hosts data previously developed by external parties. These data providers are typically researchers that have access to data that they want to make available to the larger research communities, private individuals working on languages, as well as companies that develop innovative software in the field of human language technologies.
If you have access to data that you feel will benefit the community, please consider sharing this data with us. We can make data available under a wide variety of licences, including research only, open source or commercial use. All data will be securely stored in our repository and issued with a persistent identifier, making referencing and sharing easier, while increasing exposure. All resources are also listed on SADiLaR Repository and stored to ensure long-term access to the resources.
Limited funding is available to convert existing resources to the latest standards and formats, to expand on existing datasets, and, in exceptional circumstances, to purchase resources. Please contact info@sadilar.org to discuss these possibilities.
Projects of various lengths can be supported. Preferred duration of one to two years, with conclusion of the project by ideally by October 2023.
There are no policies or regulatory regimes, apart from ethical considerations and IP rights that govern the acquisition of language resources, whether it is a text, speech, or multimodal resource. There are, however, a number of best practices that are followed by researchers and/or developers, which are normally open to public and academic scrutiny and will be implemented by the centre. SADiLaR commits itself to act in accordance with the directives of the National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO).
All project proposals will be submitted to various nationally and internationally recognised experts in the specific fields addressed by the proposal. Projects will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
SADiLaR reserves the right to, within reason, request changes to shortlisted proposals to better align with its strategy, medium-term expenditure framework, etc. Such requests may be directed at, amongst others, specifications, deliverables, budgets, and evaluation criteria.
Download the Pre-proposal template here: Pre-proposal Template
If an application is successful, a project funding agreement must be completed by the applicant. Here is an example of such an agreement: Project Funding Agreement