Specific programme: Interreg VI-A Spain-France-Andorra POCTEFA 2021-2027

Project title: Cross-border network for technological cooperation in artificial intelligence applied to language for the construction of a trans-Pyrenean linguistic infrastructure

Acronym: Linguatec-IA

Objective: The objective of the project is to develop knowledge in artificial intelligence (AI) on new neural language models applicable to languages ​​with few resources, to advance the digitalisation of the languages ​​of the POCTEFA territory (Aragonese, Catalan, Basque and Occitan) and the construction of a cross-border linguistic and intelligent infrastructure that facilitates communication between speakers of the different languages ​​and multilingual access to information.

Research team:

• Patxi Xabier Arregi Iparragirre (Investigador Principal)
• Oier López de Lacalle Lecuona
• Adrián Núñez Marcos
• María Jesús Aranzabe Urruzola
• José María Arriola Egurrola
• Ander Barrena Madinabeitia
• Nerea Ezeiza Ramos
• Itziar Aduriz Agirre

Partner Entities:

• Elhuyar Fundazioa (Project Leader)
• Lo Congrès Permanent de la Lenga Occitana
• University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko
• Unibertsitatea Université de Toulouse 2 Jean Jaures
• Université de Perpignan Via Domitia
• Center National de Recherche Scientifique General
• Directorate of Linguistic Policy of the Government of Aragon
• Universitat from Lleida

Total budget: €1,545,953.42

Budget FEDER: €1,004,867.00

Project Start: 01/01/2024

Project End: 31/12/2026

Total Project Duration: 2 years 11 months and 30 days

Project Summary: The “LINGUATEC IA” project contributes to two Challenges of the POCTEFA territory: (1) Increase the effort in innovation, investing in applied research in Artificial Intelligence in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and (2) Contribute to the social and cultural articulation of the cross-border territory, reinforcing a key element of local culture, languages. The aim is to develop AI knowledge on new autoregressive language models applicable to resource-poor languages ​​and their use to advance the digitalisation of the languages ​​of the POCTEFA territory (Aragonese, Catalan, Basque and Occitan) and the construction of a cross-border intelligent linguistic infrastructure that facilitates communication between speakers of different languages ​​and multilingual access to information. The main results of the project will be: - New algorithms and neural architectures to generate autoregressive language models adapted to limited computing regimes and linguistic resources. - Improvements in transcription, neural machine translation and voice synthesis systems for Basque, Catalan, Occitan, Aragonese and their dialectal variants, combined with French and Spanish. - Development of a multilingual language platform for automatic subtitling and dubbing.- Online platform-repository of resources, technologies and applications for the languages ​​of the Pyrenees. - Consolidation of the “Cross-border Network of Excellence in Language Technologies”. The main beneficiaries will be (1) researchers and professionals working in the field of languages ​​and their digitalisation (2) public and private entities that will be able to improve their services and make them accessible in different languages ​​and (3) citizens who will be able to communicate more easily in a multilingual environment.

The LINGUATEC-IA project has been 65% co-financed by the European Union through the Interreg VI-A Spain-France-Andorra Programme (POCTEFA 2021-2027). The objective of POCTEFA is to strengthen the economic and social integration of the Spain-France-Andorra border area.

More information about the programme:

https://www.poctefa.eu/

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/95/european-federal-regional-development-fund