GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Research should develop evidence-based strategies and policy recommendations to help policymakers and stakeholders protect endangered European languages in the context of the massive socio-cultural and economic changes of the present era. Proposals should inform EU multilingualism policy and provide national education (and other) policies with guidance to better link EU citizens with each other as well as with their own language and literature tradition, which are the main repository of the European culture and history. In times when democracy faces cumulative threats, it is particularly important that proposals advise on ways where all languages spoken in Europe can harmoniously coexist and benefit from equal treatment, including the use of language digital technologies.

Proposals should develop recommendations that empower citizens to utilise their own language at national, regional and EU level. These recommendations should aim at combating marginalisation of disadvantaged linguistic communities. In pursuing these recommendations, proposals could identify weaknesses of the multilingual policies in the EU (explicit and implicit) and share best practices from other multilingual countries across the globe. In their design, proposals are encouraged to involve young people from the very beginning with a view to grasping their views and perceptions as regards to multilingualism in the EU as well as the most suitable ways to protect their native languages.