Language Technologies must be considered an area of particular relevance both at the
academic and industrial levels. In recent years, several programs have been designed to
promote research and development, entrepreneurship and innovation that have highlighted
the key role of these technologies for progress and society.
At the European level, we have witnessed a strong funding action in the field from
the 7th Framework program to the H2020 that have resulted in the creation of what has been called
the European Multilingual Digital Single Market. In Spain, for example, the government presented a
Plan to Promote Language Technologies with an estimated investment of over 70 million euros.
In 2015, a group of professors and researchers at the University of Seville faced the challenge to convene
a workshop where experts from different countries could meet to analyze emerging trends in this field so
that they could also envision the pace for the future.
The event took place with the name First Workshop Future and Emerging Trends in Language Technology (FETLT'15).
This workshop was organized around a series of Keynote Speakers: Steve Young (University of Cambridge),
Sebastian Möller (TU Berlin), Pierre-Paul Sondag (European Commission). Four coordinators of active
European-funded research projects gave specialized conferences: Núria Bel (Pompeu Fabra University),
Asunción Gómez-Pérez (Technical University of Madrid), Giuseppe Riccardi (University of Trento) and
Steve Renals (University of Edinburgh).
Several other researchers could also share their results in a peer-reviewed process that resulted in 10
papers been presented at the workshop. All conferences and papers are being published by Springer in
the series Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, volume 9577.
After the organization of first edition of FETLT’15 the
Workshop "Future and Emerging Trends in Language Technology, Machine Learning and Big Data 2016"
is now a reality.
The strategic objectives of this 2016 edition are to facilitate dynamics between research
groups through the presentation of several keynote speakers, the organization of a specific workshop
on the key areas of future research, the development and innovation priorities in Language Technology,
with special attention to Machine Learning and Big Data. The workshop will be open to the presentation
of peer-reviewed items. The event has a scientific committee of more than 60 experts, worldwide recognized from
both academic and private industry. The Andalusian Agency of Knowledge has also shown interest in the
event and in the organization of a specific session to guide researchers on the preparation of grant
proposals and the presentation of different funding possibilities at the national and international levels.