Language Engineering - Preliminary announcement of fourth call
The European Commission, DG XIII, has published preliminary information on the fourth call for proposals for the "Language Engineering" sector of the specific RTD programme in the field of Telematics Applications. The call, due to be launched on 17 December 1996, will have a closing date of 15 April 1997. The budget for the call is likely to be around ECU 21 million for cost-shared RTD projects (including preparatory phase projects and accompanying measures). The call encompasses most of the RTD tasks specified in the Language Engineering work programme. Preference will be given to project proposals aimed at improving, configuring and integrating generic language technologies and resources and involving new programme entrants. The Commission has set out the following list of objectives and requirements: - Action line 1. Pilot application projects, particularly in the following areas: . Tele-business and electronic commerce; . Global business; . Services of public interest; . Education and training; . Digital collections; - Action line 2. Reusable language resources, including: . Development of sizeable polylingual and multilingual resources for written and spoken language; - Action line 3. Research in common areas, including: . Human-computer interaction; . Computer-mediated human communication; . Schemes for automated language model acquisition and knowledge representation; . Processing models for multimedia access and management; - Action line 4. Horizontal and support issues, addressing areas such as: . Pre-normative standards; . Assessment of near-market language components; . Establishment of interest groups and networks; . Promotion of European technologies and RTD results; . Market studies and fact-finding surveys. A full, updated Information Package will be available when the call is launched on 17 December. This should be consulted by all those preparing proposals.