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"LINGUA Africa Open Call for AI Projects in African Languages from Masakhane, Microsoft AI for Good Lab, the Gates Foundation and Google.org" is currently closed and not accepting applications.
LINGUA Africa is a joint open call from the Masakhane African Languages Hub with Microsoft AI for Good Lab, the Gates Foundation and Google. org, funding projects that build inclusive, community-grounded AI language resources for African languages.
The structure is a three-tier ladder that maps onto the actual pipeline of low-resource language AI: data creation (up to 50,000 dollars cash plus 50,000 in compute), model and tool development (up to 100,000 plus 100,000 in compute), and sectoral applications (up to 250,000 plus 400,000 in compute).
That laddering matters when choosing where to apply - a team that has no corpus yet should be applying at tier one, not pitching a deployed sectoral product. Priority sectors for the application tier are agriculture and food security, education, healthcare, financial inclusion and civic services.
Eligibility is deliberately wide: nonprofits, universities, research institutes, social enterprises, cultural organisations, startups and consortia, all working in the public interest. International organisations are not excluded but must demonstrate meaningful partnerships with Africa-based institutions or communities, which in practice means a genuine African co-lead rather than a named advisor.
The combination of funders is itself informative - Masakhane brings the grassroots African NLP research network, Microsoft and Google. org bring the compute, and the Gates Foundation brings the development-sector application focus - so proposals that speak only to research novelty without a use case, or only to social impact without technical substance, tend to fit the call poorly.
Applications closed 15 June 2026 and were submitted through the Masakhane Submittable portal.
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Or search similar grants →According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Eligible applicants are nonprofits, universities, research institutes, social enterprises, cultural organisations, startups and consortia working in the public interest. International organisations may apply but must demonstrate meaningful partnerships with Africa-based institutions or communities. Three funding tiers are available: data creation (up to 50,000 US dollars cash plus 50,000 dollars in compute credits), model and tool development (up to 100,000 dollars cash plus 100,000 dollars in compute credits), and sectoral applications (up to 250,000 dollars cash plus 400,000 dollars in compute credits). Scope is the creation of community-grounded AI language resources for African languages, with sectoral priority given to agriculture and food security, education, healthcare, financial inclusion and civic services. The application deadline was 15 June 2026, with submissions via the Masakhane Submittable portal at https://masakhane.submittable.com/submit. Verify current tier amounts, compute credit terms, partnership requirements and future cycle dates with Masakhane and the LINGUA Africa organisers before applying. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
The current listing shows awards are tiered by project type and combine cash with compute credits. Data creation projects receive up to 50,000 US dollars cash plus 50,000 dollars in compute credits; model and tool development projects up to 100,000 dollars cash plus 100,000 dollars in compute; and sectoral application projects up to 250,000 dollars cash plus 400,000 dollars in compute. amount_min is set to 50,000 and amount_max to 250,000, reflecting the cash component only. The compute credits are the part most applicants underweight: at the top tier the credits (400,000 dollars) exceed the cash award, which makes this a materially better deal for teams that intend to train or fine-tune models than the cash figure alone suggests, and a materially worse fit for teams whose costs are dominated by fieldwork, translation labour or community engagement that credits cannot pay for. Choose the tier by what the project actually consumes, not by the headline number. Verify award ceilings, matching requirements, and allowable costs in the official notice.
The published deadline was June 15, 2026, which has passed. Check the official notice for any future application windows before investing time in a proposal.
LINGUA Africa Open Call for AI Projects in African Languages from Masakhane, Microsoft AI for Good Lab, the Gates Foundation and Google.org is funded by Masakhane African Languages Hub, with Microsoft AI for Good Lab, the Gates Foundation and Google.org. Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
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