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HLT policy in the Low Countries yesterday, today, tomorrow

HLT policy in the Low Countries yesterday, today, tomorrow. Peter Spyns (Departement voor Economie, Wetenschap en Innovatie, Flanders) & Liefke Reitsma (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, The Netherlands). Outline. Funding institutions Pre-STEVIN activities independent

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HLT policy in the Low Countries yesterday, today, tomorrow

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  1. HLT policy in the Low Countriesyesterday, today, tomorrow Peter Spyns (Departement voor Economie, Wetenschap en Innovatie, Flanders) & Liefke Reitsma (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, The Netherlands)

  2. Outline • Funding institutions • Pre-STEVIN activities • independent • coordinated • STEVIN joint activities • Post-STEVIN potential activities • Existing/Potential instruments for collaboration with South Africa • Suggestions for reading

  3. Funding institutions BelSpo (TAP, IUAP) Flanders / Brussels EWI (& OV) FWO IWT / IWOIB IBBT Hercules University (BOF, IOF) The Netherlands OCW & EZ NWO SenterNovem STW / ICT Regie • UNESCO • European Commission (DG Research - INFSO) • Dutch Language Union

  4. Pre-STEVIN HLT policy - Flanders • EU (former DG XIII, currently INFSO) • Eurotra ([1978] 1986 – 1993 K.U.Leuven) machine translation • METIS I & II: 2002 - 2007 K.U.Leuven) machine translation • Siemens-Nixdorf • METAL (1985 – 1992 K.U.Leuven) machine translation • Flanders’ policy: no specific thematic programs • IWT (Flemish Innovation Agency) [from 1991] • any industry project • any strategic basic research (e.g., ATRANOS, AMASS++) • FWO (Fundamental Research Agency) [from 1928] • any basic research grant or project • support for researcher mobility and networking • CLIF scientific research community (1995-2005, 2006-2010) • Universities can determine own their research policy

  5. Pre-STEVIN HLT policy - Flanders • Short term “speech technology for Dutch” programme (1994-1997) [IWT]: 6 projects • Anno: annotated DB for Dutch in Flanders • CoGen: corpus spoken Dutch for speech technology • Continuous large vocabulary speech recognition in Dutch • FONILEX: fonetic lexicon for Dutch in Flanders • language independent fonetic decoding and synthesis of word models for continuous speech recognition • speaker dependent speech characteristics • HLT research programme (10 years) • Advice of the Flemish Science Council (1994) was positive but it was never realised in practice

  6. Pre-STEVIN HLT policy - Netherlands • SPIN (1988 – 1994) • CELEX (1986 – 2000) • NWO OVIS-programme (1995 - 2000) • NWO IMIX-programme (2003 - 2007) • EZ IOP • Rosetta, DLT

  7. Pre-STEVIN joint Fl-Nl activities • EU SpeechDAT project (1996-2001) • databases with speech recordings to train speech recognition models (20 languages) • major industrial initiative (without NTU) • EU Euromap I & II projects (1996-2003): • involvement of NTU (phase II) next to Fl & Nl (phase I) • HLT industry fair(s) and awareness campaigns • HLT market studies (national SWOT analyses) • list of national HLT actors: • Language Engineering in Flanders (E. Dewallef - 1998) • Charter the Future of Language Engineering²

  8. European HLT scorecard(source: Benchmarking HLT progress in Europe, 2003)

  9. Pre-STEVIN joint Fl-Nl activities • NTU report: The position of Dutch in HLT(G. Bouma & I. Schuurman 1998) • NL-Translex (1997-2002) • additional Systran translation dictionaries • co-funding EU, Flanders, the Netherlands and industry • corpus of Spoken Dutch (1998-2004) • joint endeavour (one scientific steering committee) • separate funding lines: 1/3 (Fl) & 2/3 (Nl) • two project management committees (Fl & Nl) • single common end product (1 DVD and 36 CDs) • PROSIT project (joint FWO – NWO VNC programme)

  10. Pre-STEVIN joint Fl-Nl activities • HLT platform (1999-2004) • hosted by NTU (secretariat) • comprising of Fl & Nl officials • prepare & develop HLT for Dutch policy • participation in ENABLER-project • commission studies funded by Fl & Nl • ”Brokering & Linking” • Reinforcing the linguistic digital infrastructure • NTU report: Dutch in HLT priorities for basic resources(W. Daelemans & H. Strik, eds. - 2002) • EZ report: HLT Technology Survey(M&I Partners & D. Van Compernolle - 2004) • Developing standards and evaluation criteria • Managing, maintaining and distributing resources • NTU report: Blueprint for maintenance, management and distribution of digital materials financed by the government ( P. Van Sterkenburg, T. Kruyt & P. van der Kamp - 2001)

  11. Flemishgovernment(EWI, IWT, FWO) Dutchgovernment(EZ, OCW, NWO) HLT board Action line 4management, maintenance, distribution and availability of digital language resources funded by government means Action line 1extending and reinforcing the network on HLT in and between the Netherlands and Flanders DutchLanguageUnion Brokering&Linking HLT Agency funded by the NTU funded by the NTU HLTplatform HLTPR & CommWG HLT(C)Pricing commitee funded by EWI, (IWT, FWO) & EZ, OCW, NWO knowledgeinstitutions companies Action line 2: Flemish/Dutch R&D programme for Dutch language and speech technology (STEVIN)

  12. STEVIN: joint Fl-Nl HLT R&D STEVIN goal: to secure the position of the Dutch language in the modern information and communication society. S Spraak- en = speech and T Taaltechnologische = language technology E Essentiële = essential V Voorzieningen = resources I In het = in N Nederlands = Dutch

  13. STEVIN: joint Fl-Nl HLT R&D • jointly funded (11,4 M€: 2004 - 2011) by the Netherlands (7,6 M€) & Flanders (3,8 M€) [www.stevin-tst.org] • coordinated and managed by the NTU • common pot funding scheme • joint submission, evaluation, monitoring and acceptation procedures • R&D programme to • promote strategic research and develop essential resources for Dutch that are missing • raise awareness of HLT results and stimulate the demand of HLT for Dutch products • support the maintenance and distribution of HLT resources

  14. financing, global supervision, coordination, monitoring and practical organisation Flemishgovernment(EWI, IWT, FWO) Flemishgovernment(EWI, IWT, FWO) Dutchgovernment(EZ, OCW, NWO) HLT board HLT-board DutchLanguageUnion supporting networking, creation of centres of excellence, training new experts, knowledge transfer and demand stimulation ProgrammeOffice (SenterNovem & NWO) HLT Agency support maintenance and distribution & adequatelysettle IPR issues WGsupportingactivities WGIPR STEVIN ProgrammeCommission InternationalAssessment Panel realising an adequate digital language infrastructure for Dutch and performing demand-driven strategic R&D

  15. STEVIN: joint Fl-Nl HLT R&D • STEVIN R&D projects • strategic research [www.stevin-tst.org/projecten] • innovative • basic resources for Dutch • STEVIN demonstration projects • industry (SME) stimulation [www.stevin-tst.org/bedrijven] • off the shelve technology • visibility [www.stevin-tst.org/pers] • STEVIN education activities • raising awareness amongst students • HLT for Dutch popularisation [www.kennislink.nl] • STEVIN networking grants • spreading knowledge • bringing potentially interested/interesting parties together • STEVIN master classes • educate industry decision makers and government high ranking officials

  16. STEVIN: joint Fl-Nl HLT R&D • Results of the STEVIN R&D projects • ownership goes in principle to the NTU • open source agreements are allowed • liveliness of the community of developers • always some formal link with the HLT Agency • free licence to allow original developers to continue research • Pricing policy for HLT Agency products • in line with basic idea of open innovation: • joint development of new knowledge (co-competition) • diffusion of knowledge (also to industry) • pricing committee recommendations (approved by HLT board) • free for non for profit use (except handling costs) • easy entry but a fair price for profit use • lump sum (or royalties if appropriate)

  17. STEVIN: joint Fl-Nl HLT R&D • successful R&D programme STEVIN: • creation of a transnational research community • connecting companies with research groups • creating a BLARK (and more) for Dutch • stimulating industry • established HLT Agency • taking in and distributing STEVIN results (and other resources) • offering help desk services • managing IPR • supported by pricing committee to advise with exploitation of results • expanding HLT info desk • near monthly e-news letter (has become a reference) • web site with overview relevant Flemish and Dutch HLT actors • assisted by overall PR&Comm WG • co-organising events (“Language@Work” industrial HLT for Dutch fair) • IAP assessment main outcome: IAP congratulates the Dutch and Flemish HLT community with the accomplishments STEVIN has reached so far

  18. Post-STEVIN activities • STEVIN last projects end in 2011 • What’s next ”STEVIN II” ? • more towards applications of HLT ? • industry-driven scientific roadmap ? • role of governments? • IPR ? Open source ? • Stimulate open innovation ? • (Fundamental) R&D: complete/update BLARK? • Specific cooperation with South Africa ? • CLARIN • currently no collaboration on governmental level • included in renewed Fl-Nl «letter of intent»

  19. Existing/Potential instruments for collaboration in Flanders • VLIR-UOS (University Development cooperation) • research grants and projects: www.vliruos.be • Federal departement of development cooperation: • grants: http://www.dgos.be/nl/dgos/studiebeurzen/index.html • University bilateral cooperation agreements • K.U.Leuven: http://www.kuleuven.be/internationaal/databank/index.php • UGent: • V.U.B.: • UA: http://www.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=.DIS&n=52274&ct=51863&e=87816 • FWO: • new upcoming bilateral agreements (start early 2009) • South-Africa on shortlist as country • HLT mentioned as potential research domain – decision still to be taken • travel grants for research visits, organising and attending conferences • grants for visiting post-doc fellowships (only in context of FWO-projects) • IWT: • SBO-projects: max 25% of budget for foreign partner

  20. Existing/Potential instruments for collaboration in the Netherlands • NUFFIC • University bilateral agreements • OCW internationalisation policy agenda • More cooperation with developing countries • Research and education

  21. Suggestions for reading • two short overview papers by Geoff Pogson [English] http://www.multilingual.com/articleDetail.php?id=738 http://www.multilingual.com/articleDetail.php?id=739 • Root URL: http://www.stevin-tst.org/documenten/ • BLARK report [Dutch]: ~/batavo.pdf • EZ HLT forecast [Dutch]: ~/technologieverkenning_nederlandstalige_taal-en_spraaktechnologie_v1-1.pdf • STEVIN multi-annual programme [Dutch]: ~/stevin_mjp_150904.pdf • LREC 2006 & 2008 papers [English]: ~/LREC2006-article-259.pdf & ~/lrec-385_spyns.pdf • DiXiTs (STEVIN projects one page descriptions) [Dutch]:

  22. Thank you!Dankuwel!Baie dankie!

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