Interview with Dr. Andrea Lösch, Project Manager and Coordinator of the European Language Resource Coordination (ELRC)
Dear Dr. Lösch, tell us more about ELRC.
The European Language Resource Coordination (ELRC) supports multilingualitiy of public services, thus empowering both public servants and citizens. By collecting language resources to adapt the automated translation system eTranslation according to the needs of public services across Europe, ELRC significantly contributes to making our cities and their services smarter.
What are the benefits of it?
The automated translation tool eTranslation is currently available free of charge to public administrations and public services in all EU Member States, Iceland and Norway. It covers all EU official languages, Icelandic and Norwegian (Bookmal and Ninorsk). Further information about eTranslation is available online: https://ec.europa.eu/info/resources-partners/machine-translation-public-administrations-etranslation_en
Thanks to the systems, public services and administrations (as well as their citizens) can communicate without borders in all EU official languages, Icelandic and Norwegian, thus offering 552 language pairs!! This is unique. The tool hence breaks the existing language barriers for all its users. At the same time, the communication and all data are safe. Staff working for a public administration, Small and Medium-sized enterprise and University language faculty in an EU country, Iceland or Norway can self register here.
How many users the systems have?
Currently, more than 70 services/institutions are already connected to eTranslation with more than 2.000 active users only in Q4 2019. The system set a remarkable record by translating more than 1 Mio. pages in a single day (that was on 7 November 2019).
The eTranslation system and the quality of its output depends on the data the system is trained on. If you want to make it work in your domain, you are invited to share any translations and language resources with the ELRC (www.lr-coordination.eu), thus supporting not only your language but also Europe's multilinguality. For further information please contact us at the ELRC Secretariat (info@lr-coordination.eu)
