ELRC Workshops 2015-2022

The European Language Resource Coordination (ELRC) organised an impactful series of 86 workshops across 29 European countries. These events engaged over 5000 participants in sessions, panels and discussions, covering pivotal topics such as language data, public open data, multilingualism, language technology and the evolving frontiers of AI. The diverse audience ranged from public administration officials, policy makers, European LT industry experts, researchers up to Language Service Providers (LSPs).

From 2015 to 2022, the ELRC Workshops showcased the CEF Automated Translation services and promoted the vision of a truly multilingual Digital Single Market under the motto #LanguageDataMatters. Here are some the key messages gathered and shared during this journey:

• Speakers of less-spoken languages are facing a digital time bomb. Such languages cannot be expected to follow the pace of global technological development unless this development is supported at the European and national level.
• Sharing language data with can contribute to improving the quality of technological support for all European languages.
• Supporting less-spoken languages is a win-win situation, because this means supporting Europe, and supporting Europe is supporting European languages, citizens and businesses.

The ELRC Workshops witnessed a positive shift in mindset, acknowledging the indispensable value of language data. They prompted national initiatives that focused on effective language management, the development of guidelines and infrastructural upgrades. The ELRC-SHARE repository grew, thanks to contributions from public services across Europe and from the CEF eTranslation Generic Services projects. Numerous requests from public administrations underscored the need for advanced language technologies, while also addressing concerns about the legal aspects of data sharing, ensuring copyright, privacy and GDPR compliance.