Dutch-Flemish Research Programme for Dutch Language and Speech Technology
Dutch is ranked as the 40th most widely spoken language of the world�s 6,000 languages. Most of the 22 million Dutch native speakers live in the Netherlands and the Flemish region of Belgium. Nevertheless the market for human language technology for Dutch (HLTD) is too limited to attract important investments by industry in HLTD. Therefore, cross border cooperation among governments, businesses and academia has been established, resulting in a Flemish/Dutch HLTD research programme. The programme is called STEVIN, which is a Dutch acronym for Essential Speech and Language Technology Resources for Dutch.
This six-year programme aims to contribute to the further progress of HLTD in Flanders and the Netherlands and stimulate innovation in this sector. In addition, it will strengthen the economic and cultural position of the Dutch language in the modern ICT-based society. The STEVIN-programme was launched in 2005. It is jointly financed by the Flemish (Department of Economy, Science and Innovation) and Dutch governments (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research).
STEVIN will run until 2011 with a total budget of 11.4 million euros. STEVIN is coordinated by the Dutch Language Union and supervised by a board of representatives of the funding bodies. A programme committee, including both academic and industrial representatives, is responsible for scientific and content related issues. An international assessment panel of highly-respected HLT-experts evaluates the submitted R&D proposals. A programme office, a joint collaboration of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and the Dutch innovation agency SenterNovem, takes care of the operational matters.
The STEVIN goals are defined in the framework of a stratified innovation system. Each actor of the system needs to be addressed, resulting in a mix of funding instruments and programme activities.
- funding for collaboration between universities and between univer-sities and industry to realise an adequate basic language resources kit
- funding strategic R&D on HLTD
- funding appealing demonstration projects illustrating the feasibility and value of HLTD applications
- funding networking activities to stimulate HLTD knowledge transfer
- organising networking activities and HLTD promotional events
To enable the use and re-use of STEVIN results, a particular IPR- arrangement has been set up. The materials (software, data etc.) must be made available to third parties through the HLT Agency (TST Centrale). The HLT Agency is responsible for IPR issues, and for the management, maintenance and distribution of HLTD-materials. In addition, the HLT Agency provides HLTD-related information, advice and training to third parties.
Unfortunately not so many documents are available in English. A complete list is given below.
- a presentation of the STEVIN programme (12 October 2005) : written speech and slide show
- presentations on intermediary states of affairs of the programme at the International Conference on Linguistic Resources and Evaluation:
- LREC 2006 slide show (May 2006)
- LREC 2008 slide show (May 2008)
- a leaflet on the Dutch Language Union and HLT for Dutch (July 2007)
- a bilingual Dutch-English leaflet on the STEVIN programme (July 2007)
- Most of the R&D projects have a summary in English
- all the scientific publications have been written in English
- a leaflet solliciting editing houses to make corpora and text collections available under specific IPR conditions
- a fact file with the most important information (till end March 2008) on the STEVIN programme as made up for the international assessment panel on occasion of the mid term review (May 2008)
- a self assessment report by the Dutch-Flemish scientific programme committee (May 2008)
- a collection of project progress reports (mainly from projects of the second round of R&D projects) for the mid term evaluation(May 2008)
- All the presentations of the midterm evaluation are in English
- a summarising presentation on the HLT policies in Flanders and the Netherlands from the nineties till now (including a STEVIN at a glance section).
Extensive information in Dutch on the Flemish/Dutch STEVIN programme and the STEVIN projects can be found on: www.stevin-tst.org. STEVIN is coordinated by the Dutch Language Union that also manages the programme financially.
Contact for more information.31 December 2008
Wegwijzer – Colofon – Contact – Vrijwaring – Opmerkingen en reacties
