Developing a strategic research, innovation and implementation agenda and a roadmap for achieving full digital language equality in Europe by 2030

BACKGROUND

Twenty-four official languages, some 60 regional and minority languages, as well as the languages of immigrants and important international trade partners determine the fabric of the EU’s linguistic landscape. Several studies and resolutions, as noted in the European Parliament resolution P8_TA-PROV(2018)0332 “Language equality in the digital age”, have found a striking imbalance in terms of digital language technologies available for the European languages. Only a few languages, such as English, French and Spanish, are well supported in the digital domain, while more than 20 official languages as well as many more regional and minority languages are considered to be in danger of digital extinction.

European human language technologies have the potential to overcome the linguistic divide in the digital sphere. To unleash the full potential of language technologies and ensure that users of digital technologies are not disadvantaged in the digital sphere because of the language they use, a clear and comprehensive strategic research, innovation and implementation agenda is needed which will ensure that language technologies are available for all European languages and deployed in digital products and services that Europeans use.

A strategic research, innovation and implementation agenda with a roadmap for achieving full digital language equality in Europe by 2030 has been developed by the ELE pilot project (European Language Equality project https://european-language-equality.eu/) resulting from the work programme for 2020 (C(2020) 2259 of 20.4.2020).

On 4 May 2021 the European Commission adopted the Commission decision on the financing of pilot projects and preparatory actions in the field of "Communications Networks, Content and Technology" and the adoption of the work programme for 2021 (C(2021) 3006 final). The work programme foresees a continuation of the pilot project on the digital language equality launched under 2020 work programme.

OBJECTIVES

The European Union has 24 official languages, in addition to many regional languages, as well as those of minorities, migrants and important international trade partners. Several studies have found a striking imbalance in terms of digital language technologies. Only a few languages, such as English, French and Spanish, are well supported in the digital domain, while more than 20 official languages as well as regional and minority languages are considered to be in danger of digital extinction. European human language technologies have the potential to overcome this linguistic divide in the digital sphere, but need a strategic research and implementation agenda (SRIA) and roadmap defining tools, processes, actions and actors that need to be involved.

To be practical and implementable, the agenda and the roadmap need to define concrete steps for implementation with tangible and measurable outputs and have a wide endorsement by the relevant stakeholders. There must be an agreement and documented commitment of the relevant stakeholders, and a critical mass.

Building on the results of the first pilot project, in particular the developed SRIA, the specific objectives of this pilot project are the following:

- to maintain and further define the strategic research and implementation agenda for achieving full digital language equality in Europe by 2030 developed in the first pilot project funded on the basis of 2020 work programme;

In particular, the project should define a prioritized list of missing language resources and/or tools for each language covered which are needed to improve the technological support for this language. The prioritized language resource and/or tools should be defined in qualitative and quantified terms, listing digital tools, products and services that they will enable, as well as stakeholders interested in working and contributing to the development of such resources and stakeholders interested in subsequently using those resources and tools in their digital products and services.

The project shall also extend the SRIA with clearly defined use cases and best-practice examples of language resource development and language technology implementations in all relevant industry sectors and areas of life, including feasibility studies, cost estimates, KPIs, and guidelines for concrete implementations in order to facilitate the buy in and take-up from the funders and implementing parties.

- to strengthen the engagement and dissemination effort towards stakeholders who can contribute to or benefit from the developed agenda;

In particular, the project should liaise with all relevant stakeholders through public consultations and on-going dialogues with view to maintaining and refining the agenda; 3 the project should specifically target those stakeholders who were less well represented in the first phase of the project and deepen the engagement with those already involved towards eliciting concrete commitments.

The project shall also promote the SRIA beyond the existing stakeholders (language specialists and technology developers) and reach end-users from all industry sectors and areas of life, including EU citizens at large with a view to increase the language technology take-up;

- to document stakeholder commitment to the implementation of the agenda;

In particular, the project should engage with the relevant policy-making bodies and funding agencies, research, industry and user stakeholders on European, national and regional level to document their interest and commitment in engaging own resources in the development and a later usage/uptake of specific language resources and/or tools. The commitment can take the form of, for example, concrete letters of intent, agreements in principle, specific LT measures defined in national/regional funding programmes, digital agendas or industrial initiatives.

- to provide incentives to stakeholders in user industries to implement language technologies based on the SRIA.

In particular, the project can provide financing to third parties for elaboration of feasibility studies for concrete LT implementations, the preparation of bestpractices/guidelines for LT deployment for concrete scenarios or for actual deployment of LT for a specific end-user, if these are aligned with the SRIA and help demonstrate the feasibility of specific agenda items.

The strategic agenda shall be extended and further elaborated based on the results and lessons learnt from these actions.