MultiLAwa - Multilingual Language Awareness in the European Digital Society
European society is currently facing major challenges, intensified by digitalisation and mobility. These include linguistic inequalities in education, a lack of diversity in science, business and public administration, the growing technological gap between well-resourced and less-resourced languages, as well as bias and stereotypical representations produced by digital and AI-based systems. These developments make urgent action necessary.
The MultiLAwa project promotes plurilingualism and multilingualism as key drivers of social cohesion and inclusion by strengthening Language Awareness (LA)—that is, explicit and implicit knowledge about language(s) and their use—at the individual, institutional and societal levels.
The project goes beyond existing research and training initiatives and aims to explore the interconnections between Language Awareness (LA), plurilingualism and multilingualism, and digital transformation, and to translate them into practical solutions by:
- investigating how Language Awareness can serve as a competence for addressing digital transformation in Europe, and how digital progress can foster Language Awareness as well as plurilingualism and multilingualism;
- developing new theoretical, methodological and empirical foundations for Language Awareness in the digital age;
- creating innovative digital resources and guidelines to promote Language Awareness and thereby strengthen plurilingualism and multilingualism.
MultiLAwa bridges research and practice and brings together 10 European universities and 16 partners in a broad and diverse consortium.
As part of the project, 14 young multilingual researchers will be trained through a PhD programme, equipping them to address language-related challenges in an increasingly digitalised society and to contribute to sustainable, inclusive and multilingual ecosystems in Europe.
Application Process
Applications will be accepted until July 14, 2026.
The advertised PhD positions, including two positions supervised by Prof. Eva Vetter (DC6 & DC14), can be viewed here: https://www.multilawa.eu/open-phd-positions/
There will be an online information session on June 16 for all applicants. You can find the link to the session and all the details about the rest of the application process here: https://www.multilawa.eu/recruitment-for-applying/general-information/
Further Information
Project staff at the University of Vienna
University partners
- Université de Lorraine, ATILF, FR (Coordination)
- University of Innsbruck, AT
- University of Zurich, CH
- Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, DE
- University of Mannheim, DE
- University of Copenhagen, DK
- University of Milan, IT
- University of Warsaw, PL,
- Nova University Lisbon, PT
Contact
Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Eva Vetter (eva.vetter@univie.ac.at)