European Language Grid

The European Language Grid is an initiative from members of the European LT community for the whole European LT community, including industry and research.

ELG can only become a long-term success if a large and active community makes use of the European Language Grid in terms of providing services, tools and resources as well as using these services, tools and resources.

Our goal is to grow a vibrant and active community around the ELG by including all stakeholders, by supporting a set of 15-20 pilot projects, by supporting relevant European research projects, and by establishing a network of National Competence Centres as well as a European Language Technology Council.

Technology development as well as communication, promotion and dissemination activities are being carried out towards this objective.

Relevant Projects and Initiatives

The ELG’s success critically depends on the close collaboration and cooperation with many different stakeholders, most importantly in industry and research, but also in administration, politics, civil society and standardisation as well as on powerful instruments for informing and mobilising stakeholders on the regional, national and international level.

Among the stakeholder groups are the research, development and innovation communities, Language Technology industry and business (among others, integrators, providers, buyer companies), NGOs, professional associations and the public at large. Several of these are already (partially) organised in international and national initiatives.

In addition, more and more activities are emerging on the national and regional level towards the goal of establishing national LT plans, supported by national or regional governments and funding agencies. ELG also wants to coordinate between these emerging activities.

Relevant European Projects

Relevant European Initiatives

National Competence Centres

ELG established 32 National Competence Centres (NCCs) to act as local and national bridges to the ELG consortium and the European Language Grid as a technology platform.

Their responsibilities include collecting national and regional information about Language Technology services and resources, local and national projects, research centres, experts, companies, and initiatives. The NCCs organise workshops, datathons, servicethons or hackathons. They promote ELG in their region and establish bridges to their local funding agencies.

European Language Technology Council

ELG set up the European Language Technology Council to establish a structured dialogue with all relevant national and international stakeholders. Among these are representatives of research centres, industry, national funding agencies, national language institutes, national and international stakeholder initiatives, associations etc.

The council has a wide scope and coverage, including not only public administrations but representatives from all stakeholders relevant for the discussion of strategies and initiatives towards achieving the joint goal of technology-enabled multilingualism in Europe.

Industry Advisory Board

The Industry Advisory Board will provide advice and recommendations so that the emerging European Language Grid will be a sustainable platform tailored to the needs of European industry. The board will consist of representatives of European industry, concentrating on SMEs and large enterprises developing and using Language Technology, service integrators, cloud operators, also including representatives of research centres active in spinning out new companies.

Any project-overarching innovation aspects will be discussed with the Industry Advisory Board to make sure that the innovation potential of the ELG is fully exploited. It will also be consulted for the emerging sustainability plan of the European Language Grid.