By the end of the project, MEDAL (Methodological Excellence in Data‑Driven Approaches to Linguistics) delivered a highly visible programme of international collaboration and capacity building that strengthened competence in data-driven linguistic methodology, with a particular focus on ECRs, via three annual Summer Schools and 24 training events such as workshops and master classes in research and career skills.
Flagship Summer Schools covered corpus linguistics, experimental linguistics, and computational modelling, creating a structured methods training programme across the project lifetime in order to equip current PhD students and early career researchers with crucial skills for driving research and innovation in the field for years to come. In the first year of the project, the lead partner UTARTU hosted a Summer School in Corpus Linguistics, and in the second year, the partners in Nijmegen (MPI in Psycholinguistics and RU) co-hosted a Summer School in Experimental Linguistics. The Summer School in Computational Methods took place in Birmingham (organised by the associated partner UB) in the project's final year. MEDAL finished with a conference: “MEDAL Final Conference: New Challenges, Novel Approaches” in Tartu on 9-10 October 2025, hosted by UTARTU. Training events were organised across the consortium, with an effort to make as many workshops as possible available to a wide group of interested ECRs within and beyond the consortium. Training workshops on methodological tools and skills for linguists, statistical analysis, and career skills, such as writing grant proposals, practising Open Science, and responding to reviewers, were organised as in-person, online and hybrid events.
Project-related training materials were disseminated as widely as possible on OSF (project MEDAL) and YouTube (#MEDAL2325). Engagement was promoted on social media platforms, such as Instagram (#MEDAL2325).
MEDAL also delivered a structured package of mobility and mentoring that ensured training translated into real collaboration, research practice, and long-term networks. Altogether, 130 mobility activities took place, supporting attendance at training events, mentoring sessions, collaboration stays, and institutional development exchanges, and 27 guest lecture visits. In order to establish a sustainable mobility exchange program between UTARTU and the other MEDAL partners beyond the scope of the EC-funded Twinning project, an Erasmus+ exchange agreement (with RU) and a memorandum of understanding (with UB) were established.
