National Library of France Scholarships, 2021-2022

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The National Library of France publishes a call for researchers every year in order to join the competition of young researchers for the purposes of study and promotion of its collections, in priority to those unpublished, unknown or insufficiently described. Last year, this arrangement made it possible to accommodate 31 associate researchers in 12 collection departments.

The status of associate researcher offers a welcome and support in a department of the BnF, with easy access to the collections.

For the year 2021-2022, two scholarships will be awarded:

• A grant called “Louis Roederer for photography” in support of work on photography in all its aspects, whether historical, technical or artistic. Any student from all over the world can apply;
• A grant from the history committee of the BnF in support of work on the history of the National Library of France, from the King’s library to today, and the constitution of its collections. Any student from all over the world can apply;

Each scholarship is endowed with 10,000 euros.

AXIS 1: LOUIS ROEDERER SCHOLARSHIP FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

The subject proposed for obtaining the Louis Roederer Foundation research grant (endowed with 10,000 euros) must relate to photography and can touch on all its aspects, whether historical as well as technical, artistic or sociological. The approach can be done by author or groups of authors, by genre or field of application, by technical process, by corpus or fund, by mode or medium of dissemination, etc. Approaches that link photography to other modes of expression are also appreciated.

The issues must apply to the collections kept in the different departments of the BnF: not only, of course, the Department of Prints and Photography, but also the Department of Maps and Plans (geography society collection), the Department of Performing Arts, Department of Music (including the Opera Library-Museum), Department of Manuscripts, etc.

Candidates for the Louis Roederer Foundation scholarship are free to propose any other research subject falling within this axis and relating to the collections kept at the BnF.

Applications for this scholarship are not subject to an age limit.

AXE 2 : BNF HISTORY COMMITTEE SCHOLARSHIP

Applicants are free to propose their own topics. They can relate to administrative history, the history of audiences and uses, architecture, personnel, library processing (classification, conservation, digitization), the history of social representations, etc.

Particular attention will be paid to projects relating to the history of the collections and their origins.

HOW TO APPLY?

Candidates wishing to respond to the call for researchers are invited to follow the steps below:

1. Go to the “Complete the form” section (APPLY button below) to create an account on the SciencesConf or HAL platform and complete the registration form.
2. Click on the “Submit a research project” section and follow the 4 submission steps.

• In step 2, you will be invited to choose an affiliation from the CCSD repository, select the “BnF” affiliation if you do not have one, and the “Ministry of Culture” supervision.
• In step 3: “File (s)”, the following documents should be downloaded as a single pdf file:
  • Detailed curriculum vitae
  • Description in French of the research project specifying objectives, methods, steps, expected results, theoretical importance of these results (5 pages maximum)
  • Appreciation of the research project, in particular for candidates for the Louis Roederer grant for photography (2 pages maximum)
  • The candidate can attach a list of publications, interventions, achievements related to his research activity
  • The candidate can attach one or two letters of recommendation from scientific personalities.

Attention :

Do not forget the step “Submit a research project”. The single step “Complete the form” indicates that you are applying, but a submission is only considered complete if it includes a research project.

Do not wait until the last minute to submit your research project and allow yourself time to check, after submission, that the project is registered on the call site.

Call schedule

For all questions : [email protected]

APPLY RULES OF APPEAL (PDF) OFFICIAL SITE