FOSTERLANG: Our new HORIZON EUROPE proposal positively evaluated

We are happy to announce to have just received a positive evaluation of a collaborative grant ‘Fostering Linguistic Capital: A Roadmap for Reversing the Diversity Crisis and Activating Societal Benefits in Europe’ #FOSTERLANG HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01-05. The project will be formally launched after signing the grant agreement with the European Commission. The consortium leader is the Center for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity led by Prof. Justyna Olko (Faculty “Artes Liberales” UW). The project will be carried out in close collaboration with Prof. Agnieszka Otwinowska-Kasztelanic the leader of the Multilingualism Research Hub (Faculty of Modern Languages UW), as well as dr Joanna Dolińska and dr Katarzyna Wojtylak (Faculty “Artes Liberales” UW). For the project, UW teams up with with 13 other partners: European Language Equality Network, Linguapax International (Spain), Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Stowarzyszenie Wilamowianie, Stowarzyszenie Ruska Bursa, Naja Szkola, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (the Netherlands), Universidad del Pais Vasco/ Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (Spain/the Basque Country), Dublin City University (Ireland), Universitetet Oslo (Norway), University of the Highlands and Islands (UK), University of Wales Trinity Saint David Royal Charter (UK) and Pädagogische Hochschule Kärnten (Austria).

The FOSTERLANG project aims to have a transformative effect on how minoritised and migrant languages are protected, used and promoted in Europe in the context of the competitive societal dynamic between dominant and non-dominant languages. We will develop evidence-based diagnostics of the minority-language condition and propose strategic and technologically informed initiatives to protect and enhance their socioeconomic position. The project’s partners will work in tandem to develop a new societal and institutional dispensation by which minoritised language communities will catalyse their contested linguistic capital to counteract the socio-political and economic forces which continue to undermine a sustainable future for Europe’s linguistic minorities and migrants. Our project aligns with strategic priorities of EU and the Horizon Europe programme in fostering societal coherence of different linguistic communities living in their shared spaces. The major outcome will be a Linguistic Capital Road Map which will set out a substantive set of recommendations for the short, medium and long-term on effective and meaningful strategies for fostering Europe’s linguistic capital and for safeguarding grassroots multilingualism.