Microsoft Research has launched LINGUA Africa, a grant program offering selected projects between $50,000 and $250,000 to build AI tools, datasets, and language models around African languages. Applications are open now and close June 15, 2026.
The program runs in partnership with the Gates Foundation, Google.org, and the Masakhane African Languages Hub. It is open to universities, nonprofits, startups, research institutions, and community organisations. Grant funding comes with cloud compute credits from Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, plus technical mentorship from across the consortium. Prioritised areas include African language dataset creation, multilingual model development, open-source tooling, and sector-specific AI in healthcare, education, agriculture, and financial inclusion.
Africa has more than 2,000 languages, yet most large language models are built on training data that skews heavily toward English. Most AI tools today cannot understand or respond in the languages millions of Africans use for healthcare, farming guidance, or government services — a gap the initiative is designed to narrow. Microsoft Research Africa teams in Nairobi are already building toward one concrete application: Project Gecko adapts FarmerChat to deliver locally relevant farming advice through local languages on low-bandwidth devices and basic handsets.
Chenai Chair, director of the Masakhane African Languages Hub, framed the issue as one of access, not representation alone: “Supporting African languages in technology is not just about inclusion — it is about ensuring communities can fully participate in the digital future.”. You can register here to get started.
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