This paper presents e-Fran, an on-going French initiative for linking academics from various disciplines and practitioners to design and test innovative ways of using digital technologies to improve learning outcomes. It is a research policy paper as first research results are not yet available. e-Fran is a nation-wide research program deployed in France from October 2016 over four years. The national context, the objectives, the project selection process and the funded projects are described as well as the follow-up actions.