Safeguarding linguistic diversity in Europe

Europe’s rich cultural heritage and strong creative industries not only reflect our past but also shape our future. It is by building on this foundation and developing our strengths that we can face the great challenges of our time with confidence and shape a desirable common future. Europe's cultural heritage originates from the interaction between people and places through time and is constantly evolving^[1]. Every citizen has a right to engage with the cultural heritage of their choice, while respecting the rights and freedoms of others, as an aspect of the right to participate freely in cultural life^[2].

Europe’s diverse tangible and intangible cultural heritage and dynamic cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are strategic assets. They enrich our lives, foster social cohesion and societal resilience, and contribute to a sense of belonging. They underpin a growing economy that generates more employment than the automotive industry and a similar trade balance as food, drinks and tobacco combined. Many of Europe’s multinational companies build their international success on European heritage and creativity. At the same time, the sector is nurturing large numbers of dynamic small, medium (SMEs) and micro enterprises, creating employment not the least for young people, while deploying their creativity not only to generate income but also to contribute to social and cultural sustainability, wellbeing and to projecting European values at home and abroad. The cultural and creative industries are engines of innovation not only in themselves, but across the entire economy, thus contributing strongly to Europe’s overall competitiveness and future prosperity.

This destination adopts a people-centred perspective and places cultural heritage and the cultural and creative industries at the very heart of the European economy, its competitiveness and sustainability. R&I activities under this destination will be aligned with the main principles and objectives of the Culture Compass for Europe and support objectives such as circular and just fashion and textiles value-chains, social cohesion and resilience through arts, design and cultural practices and creative entrepreneurial ecosystems for regional development. R&I activities under this destination will support and strengthen European cultural heritage and cultural and creative industries essentially along the following lines:

Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness: To secure Europe’s future prosperity and competitiveness, it is necessary to unlock the innovative power of our cultural heritage and CCIs. The CCIs contribute strongly to drive innovation not only in themselves but also in other industries and economic sectors, shape new technologies and can contribute to user-driven innovation, open innovation and cross-sectoral innovation, in addition to their wider societal contributions such as to cultural wealth, social cohesion and resilience.

R&I actions under this area will focus on boosting the innovation-driving role of the CCIs, on creative startups, on the impact of artificial intelligence technologies on creativity and CCIs, while ensuring that new technologies are fairly deployed, along with the contributions of artistic intelligence and soft skills, boosting a circular economy and global partnerships in cultural policies and CCIs, among other things.

Supporting people, strengthening our societies and our social model: Cultural heritage, the arts and the CCIs have a crucial role to play for resilient and socially sustainable societies, shaping and strengthening the values that hold us together and give meaning and a sense of belonging.

R&I actions under this area will focus on boosting the role of culture, the arts and creative industries in contributing to well-being, to the social economy and in general the societal impact of cultural heritage. R&I actions will explore and strengthen the role of culture, heritage and CCIs in shaping the technologies of the future and focus on safeguarding intangible heritage and linguistic diversity, on sustainable cultural tourism and on countering illicit trafficking of cultural goods, among others.

Some actions funded under this Destination will need access to and/or generate data. Where appropriate, actions should leverage the data and services available through European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud or included in the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and the ESFRI roadmap, as well as data from relevant European Data Spaces. In particular, projects that produce data or digital tools of potential interest to cultural heritage institutions or researchers should, as appropriate, establish links to and/or consider integrating their results in the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH)^[3].Particular efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of actions under this Destination is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).

The innovation ecosystems created and nurtured by the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), in particular the KIC “EIT Culture and Creativity”, may contribute to actions under this destination, and may as appropriate be considered by applicants. Furthermore, applicants are invited to consult funding opportunities in other parts of the Horizon Europe Work Programme, including for instance the funding opportunities for companies, high potential start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovative researchers offered under the European Innovation Council.

R&I actions under this Destination will help ensure Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness, support people, strengthening our societies and our social model, contribute to protecting our democracy, upholding our values and boosting a global Europe, leveraging our power and partnerships. They will contribute to reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to building a stronger, more participatory and crisis-resilient society and economy. They will support the realisation of the full potential of cultural heritage, arts and cultural and creative industries as drivers of sustainable innovation and a European sense of belonging.

To maximise the impacts of R&I under this Destination in line with EU priorities, international cooperation is encouraged whenever relevant in the proposed topics.

Expected impact:

Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to the following expected impact of the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan:

• The full potential of cultural heritage, arts and cultural and creative industries and sectors as drivers of both sustainable innovation and a European sense of belonging is realised through a continuous engagement with society, citizens and economic sectors.

[1] Council conclusions of 21 May 2014 on cultural heritage as a strategic resource for a sustainable Europe (2014/C 183/08) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52014XG0614(08)

[2] CETS 199 - Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (coe.int)

[3] See further for instance https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/social-sciences-and-humanities/cultural-heritage-and-cultural-and-creative-industries-ccis/cultural-heritage-cloud_en

Expected Outcome:

Projects should contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Enhanced understanding, accompanied by documented good practices, showing what works to encourage multilingualism in society and what type of practices have led to safeguarding linguistic heritage, including lesser used, endangered and historically marginalised languages.
• Rigorous policy-relevant evidence, strategies and policy recommendations for promoting multilingualism and safeguarding linguistic diversity are available to policy makers, and users are involved in their development, especially the younger generation. Non-linguistic benefits of language maintenance and revitalisation are well documented, communicated and understood by different stakeholders.
• Citizens are empowered and engaged in the sustainable management of their own linguistic heritage and resources, with a focus on intergenerational dialogue and education activities, with particular attention to communities where oral transmission is the primary mode of language preservation.
• Maps and visual presentations showing the linguistic diversity in Europe are available, including a variety of existing languages (regional and minority languages, indigenous languages, low resources languages etc.) and offering suited terminology and explanations.

Scope:

Linguistic diversity is a fundamental part of Europe’s cultural heritage. When languages disappear, a whole knowledge system disappears, and cultural diversity is impoverished. Linguistic diversity plays a key role in safeguarding cultural diversity. Languages are the expression of the identity, culture and the way peoples perceive their world. Knowledge and culture are lost when languages are lost.

The EU has 24 official languages and some estimated 60 other languages spoken in particular regions or by specific groups. They are an essential part of the rich fabric of European culture. The proposals would document and map the situation of linguistic diversity in Europe, taking into consideration existing frameworks, initiatives and working terminology established by the Council of Europe and UNESCO.

The proposals should identify examples of good practice that have resulted in richer use of languages in society, thus promoting multilingualism, and would support sharing of knowledge and good practices.

Moreover, in recent decades, multilingual regions have been affected by a confluence of demographic, socio-economic, and sociocultural challenges. An aging population coupled with lower birthrates has strained these communities, leading to a decrease in the number of native speakers who can transmit their linguistic heritage to younger generations. The housing crisis affecting several of these regions, also driven by tourism, exacerbates this dilemma, as economic pressures force long-time residents to leave their ancestral homes. Migration, while enriching in diversity, often further dilutes the linguistic fabric as newcomers bring different linguistic traditions and younger generations gravitate toward globally dominant languages. The sociocultural landscape is equally challenging, with the loss of monolingual minority speakers and community life and the media environments that increasingly prioritize universal appeal and dominant languages over local authenticity. This is particularly acute for itinerant or dispersed communities, e.g. Roma communities, whose linguistic heritage is often overlooked in mainstream narratives.

The proposals should explore how these elements have changed the language situation in those areas and how the different regions have adapted to the new linguistic environment, and what are the effects on the local economy. Particular attention should be given to languages with limited institutional support to explore how better visibility and accurate representation could be achieved.

Another element changing the game for language learning and safeguarding heritage are digital technologies. The projects should address the online presence of different languages and explore how language technologies could overcome the deepening linguistic divide in the digital domain^[1], while also documenting the availability of language data. Proposals should also look at the presence of different languages in different forms of media, arts and wider forms of cultural expressions. Projects could also explore how digital platforms and AI tools can aid in language preservation, especially for endangered regional languages.

The projects should explore the non-linguistic benefits of language maintenance, regeneration and learning. They could also look at how multilingualism and maintaining and learning heritage languages affects people’s wellbeing, self-respect and health due to the comfort, lower stress and sense of security at being able to speak their first language and not have their identity challenged. The actions should propose ways to encourage and support multilingual education and intergenerational transmission, including formal and non-formal learning settings. Particular consideration should be given to communities where formal education in the heritage language has historically been absent or discouraged.

The proposals should comprise transdisciplinary collaborations (including SSH disciplines) in resolving this issue involving, for instance and not exhaustive, linguistics, heritage and museum studies, media studies, theatre studies, literary studies, socio-economic, socio-cultural and migration studies etc. Available results of existing research on safeguarding linguistic diversity and multilingualism should be taken into consideration, while identification of needs for further research in the field should be promoted. Research could explore, among others, the role of oral transmission and its gendered component, in safeguarding languages at risk and methods to ensure its conservation. This is particularly relevant for languages where oral storytelling, music, and intergenerational dialogue play a central role in cultural transmission.

The projects should have a dedicated place for linguistic cartography (meaningful representations of linguistic diversity) and explore what are the challenges of assigning language to space; current language mapping projects, and what are the opportunities for improving language mapping with current technology.

The projects could explore how language maps could serve as educational or research tools, to provide illustrations of linguistic and cultural diversity. Pursuing cultural awareness and cultural diversity understanding makes language mapping a significant research objective.

Proposals should develop recommendations for promoting multilingualism in our societies and safeguarding of linguistic diversity, empowering citizens to take ownership for safeguarding their linguistic heritage. These recommendations should also aim at combating marginalisation of disadvantaged linguistic communities, including itinerant and stateless groups.

Proposals should build on existing knowledge, activities, networks and platforms, notably the ones funded by the EU. For example, they could include past initiatives such as the 1996 Euromosaic study. The study documented the linguistic diversity of the 12 original EC countries and later of newer members which joined the EU. The Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism also carried out many regional EU-funded dossiers, which would benefit from updating.

Synergies could also be created with the European Data Space for Languages and the ALT-EDIC initiative. ^[2]

Furthermore, links should be established and synergies sought with closely related actions, such as relevant R&I actions funded by Horizon Europe or Horizon 2020. In particular, proposals should establish links to, and where appropriate build on findings from, projects funded under the topics HORIZON-CL2-2022-HERITAGE-01-01: Safeguarding endangered languages in Europe and ‘HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01-05: Strategies to strengthen the European linguistic capital in a globalised world.

Proposals should engage local communities, citizens and civil society organisations, in the development of their actions, using participatory approaches.

[1] Building i.a. on the European Language Equality (ELE) project reports analysing the linguistic landscape of Europe, providing insights into the availability and quality of digital tools and resources for various European languages.

[2] ALT-EDIC - European Commission