Overview of the ELE Project

Overview of the ELE Project Itziar Aldabe,4 Jane Dunne,1 Aritz Farwell,4 Owen Gallagher,1 Federico Gaspari,1 Maria Giagkou,5 Jan Hajic,3 Jens Peter Kückens,2 Teresa Lynn,1 Georg Rehm,2 German Rigau,4 Katrin Marheinecke,2 Stelios Piperidis,5 Natalia Resende,1 Tea Vojtěchová,3 Andy Way1 1 ADAPT Centre, School of Computing, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland 2 Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) GmbH, Alt-Moabit 91c, 10559 Berlin, Germany 3 Charles University (CUNI), Ovocný trh 5, Prague 1, 116 36, Czech Republic 4 Universidad Del Pais Vasco/ Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (University of the Basque Country) UPV/EHU, Barrio Sarriena s/n, 48940 Leioa, Bizkaia 5Athina-Erevnitiko Kentro Kainotomias Stis Technologies Tis Pliroforias, Ton Epikoinonion Kai Tis Gnosis (ILSP), Artemidos 6 & Epidavrou, GR-151 25 Maroussi, Athens, Greece Abstract This paper presents the ongoing European Language Equality (ELE) project, an 18- month action funded by the European Commission. The primary goal of the ELE project is to prepare the ELE programme, in the form of a strategic research, innovation and implementation agenda and roadmap for achieving full digital language equality in Europe by 2030. 1. Background Twenty-four official languages and more than 60 regional and minority languages constitute the fabric of the EU’s linguistic landscape. However, language barriers still hamper communication and the free flow of information across the EU. Multilingualism is a key cultural cornerstone of Europe and signifies what it means to be and to feel European. The landmark 2018 European Parliament resolution “Language equality in the digital age” found a striking imbalance in terms of support through language technologies (LTs) so issued a call to action. Starting in January 2021, ELE answered this call and is laying the foundations for a strategic research, innovation and implementation agenda (SRIA) and roadmap to make full digital language equality (DLE) a reality in Europe by 2030. © 2022 The authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 licence, no derivative works, attribution, CC- BY-ND. Developing an SRIA and roadmap for achieving full DLE in Europe by 2030 involves many stakeholders with different perspectives. Accordingly, the ELE project – led by DCU, and with DFKI, Charles University, ILSP and EHU/UPV as core members – has put together a large consortium of all 52 partners, who together with the wider European LT community, are preparing the different parts of the SRIA and roadmap, for all European languages: official, regional and minority languages. 2. Achievements & Ongoing Activities Ensuring appropriate technology support for all European languages will create jobs, growth and opportunities in the digital single market. Equally crucial, overcoming language barriers in the digital environment is essential for an inclusive society and for providing unity in diversity for many years to come. To date, we have concentrated on two distinct aspects: (i) collecting the current state of play (2021/2022) of LT support for the more than 70 languages under investigation, largely by the 32 National Competence Centres in our sister project European Language Grid (ELG);2 and (ii) strategic and technological forecasting, i.e. estimating and envisioning the future situation in 2030 …

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