Projects

2019

COST

European network for Web-centred linguistic data science

The main aim of this Action is to promote synergies across Europe between linguists, computer scientists, terminologists, and other stakeholders in industry and society, in order to investigate and extend the area of linguistic data science. We understand linguistic data science as a subfield of the emerging “data science”, which focuses on the systematic analysis and study of the structure and properties of data at a large scale, along with methods and techniques to extract new knowledge and insights from it. Linguistic data science is a specific case, which is concerned with providing a formal basis to the analysis, representation, integration and exploitation of language data (syntax, morphology, lexicon, etc.). In fact, the specificities of linguistic data are an aspect largely unexplored so far in a big data context. 

In order to support the study of linguistic data science in the most efficient and productive way, the construction of a mature holistic ecosystem of multilingual and semantically interoperable linguistic data is required at Web scale. Such an ecosystem, unavailable today, is needed to foster the systematic cross-lingual discovery, exploration, exploitation, extension, curation and quality control of linguistic data. We argue that linked data (LD) technologies, in combination with natural language processing (NLP) techniques and multilingual language resources (LRs) (bilingual dictionaries, multilingual corpora, terminologies, etc.), have the potential to enable such an ecosystem that will allow for transparent information flow across linguistic data sources in multiple languages, by addressing the semantic interoperability problem.

2018

COST

Constitution-making and deliberative democracy

In Europe and across the world, several countries are turning to deliberative democracy to reform their constitutions, and in many others this question is high on the political agenda. Such transformation also shuffles quite radically the role of the citizenry regarding constitutional changes. Traditionally such changes are the sole responsibility of elected officials, in collaboration with experts. With the deliberative turn, many more actors may be involved in the designing of constitutions: citizens both individually and collectively in the forms of informal associations, social movements, civil society organisations, participatory consultants and research teams. The Main Aim of the Action is to bring together all these actors – who are usually not in contact – to discuss and reflect on this democratic challenge, not only in terms of normative ideals but also and above all on the empirical challenges raised by this complex and multi-faceted democratic transformation.

Because the focus of ConstDeb is on constitutions and deliberative democracy, the Action itself as a network is intended to work in a deliberative fashion.

This action has three research coordination objectives:

  1. To gather and organize information about all deliberative democracy experiments related to constitution-like issues, research and writing about constitutional deliberative democracy, and the actors involved in both;

  2. To make this information widely available and widely used;

  3. To promote interaction between actors involved in this area, and also interested actors who are not yet involved.

The primary vehicle to achieve these objectives will be a deliberative portal.

2017

EU Horizon 2020 project

Centre of Excellence for Cultural and Creative Innovations in Lithuania (innocult), No. 763748, 2017/09/01-2018/08/31

EU Horizon 2020 project. The “innocult” Teaming Phase 1 project specifically aims to create a Centre of Excellence (CoE) of Creative and Cultural Innovations in Lithuania. The new CoE is targeted to perform research and innovation actions in line with the challenges faced in our country and aimed at promoting participatory culture and socio-cultural engagement of diverse societies by supporting cultural and creative processes of integration and disruption. Investigation and measurement of cultural and creative capital value on the basis of developed methodological approach and means will disclose the wide social and economic role the cultural and creative industries play and, therefore, foster networking, entrepreneurship and innovation potential of cultural and creative sector creating conditions for estimating forthcoming model of participatory culture.

The main goal of the Centre of Excellence is to provoke innovative changes in participatory culture and provide a guidance of smart and sustainable changes for cultural and creative organizations and audiences within creative sector to operate in competitive environment for leading excellence based on investigated and measured cultural and creative processes.

Therefore, the CoE seeks to promote development of CCI institutions, formation of new institutional strategies leading towards inclusive and participatory culture taking into account the importance and shifts of the economical, communicative, technological and social factors, in order for the cultural institutions and network to start functioning as activating centres of social innovations, as hubs for involvement of new audiences (minorities, youth, seniors etc.) increasing competences of culture consumption in respect to the development of CCI.

 

Baltic Sea History Project

Project „Multiperspectivity in adult education using the example of the Baltic Sea history” co-funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union

Eleven institutions from seven countries around the Baltic Sea worked together in the transnational project “Multiperspectivity in Adult Education using the Example of Baltic Sea History” headed by Academia Baltica in Germany. Between 2017 and 2019, they jointly developed this course, guidelines “Writing History in Multiperspective”, further learning materials and an online platform.

The Baltic Sea Multiperspectivity project was supported by the European Union’s programme “ERASMUS+”. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

This project and this course builds upon the experiences and results of the project “Cultural Perspectives – Towards a Cultural Identity of the Baltic Sea” (2012-2014). This was supported by the European Union’s “Culture” programme and by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).

2015

H2020-INFRADEV-2014-2015/H2020-INFRADEV-1-2015-1

Strengthening the CLARIN Infrastructure (CLARIN-PLUS) 2015-09-01 – 2017-08-31

On October 25, 2014 Lithuania joined CLARIN ERIC, and on March 31, 2015 Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas University of Technology and Vilnius University founded the CLARIN-LT consortium. On June 25, 2015 CLARIN-LT received funding and started its activities.

CLARIN-LT is a research infrastructure of paramount importance for the Lithuanian language resources and technologies. It is closely related to its ESFRI ERIC source CLARIN and based on the national consortium. As such it should be supported and promoted. By integrating the existing and new valuable language resources into the CLARIN infrastructure, CLARIN provides easy and direct access to such resources and expertise. The main means to do so are central services such as the CLARIN portal. Most of CLARIN’s work and CLARIN’s services, however, are located at the many CLARIN centres across and even outside Europe. One of such centres is CLARIN-LT centre at Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Humanities, the Centre of Computational Linguistics.

Each CLARIN centre is a gateway not only to local resources and technology, but also to the resources and technology in the whole European CLARIN network. CLARIN works for all disciplines in the Humanities and Social Science as long as they work with digital language resources (text, multimedia, lexical information, etc.). Many of those who participate in building CLARIN have a background in linguistics, language technology or computer science. CLARIN is broadly used by scholars of many disciplines, for instance literature studies, history, political science, linguistics, sociology, psychology, computational linguistics, philosophy, ethnology, etc.

2014

Research Council of Lithuania programme

Phenomenology in philosophy of Vasilyj Sezeman 2014-03-01, No. LIT-8-63, 2014-03-01 2015-12-31

The project analyzes the psychology and phenomenology of creativity in Sesemann’s aesthetics. The study reveals how the consideration of the general problems of aesthetics is related to the philosophy of creation and culture. Aesthetics must analyze not only the acts of the object’s perception but also how an aesthetic object is created. The developed concept of creative dynamics in Sesemann’s aesthetics is like the phenomenology of cultural philosophy. Sesemann, like other representatives of phenomenological aesthetics, interpreted a work of art as the experience of the world. A work of art is created like an institution that is directed both to the experience of the world and the possibility to reveal this experience to another subject.

COST

Enhancing Children’s Oral Language Skills across Europe and Beyond: A Collaboration on Interventions for Children with Difficulties Learning Their First Language, No. IS1406 2014-11-12 – 2019-05-16

The main focus of Action IS1406 is on increasing the effectiveness of interventions for children with Language Impairment and improve an understanding of the context in which those interventions are delivered. The Action aims at creating a coherent understanding of the population “in need” of intervention and developing standardised terminology; identifying the best evidence-based practice related to Language Impairment (LI), drawing on both available literature and the expertise of Action members; mapping provision for children and young people with LI across Europe and place the intervention evidence within the health, education and social care policy landscape in different countries in Europe and beyond.

Potential impact of the Action is clearly seen in research, practice, and policies. The scope and possibilities for carrying out research in the field is enhanced via collaboration between researchers and practitioners within and between countries. Practical aspects are exploited via increase of understanding of how services vary across Europe and the role that context plays in the development of services. As for impact on policy, the Action provides the potential for discussing the implications of LI at a national level with researchers and practitioners; it increases awareness of the importance of early language development and LI.

COST

Strengthening Europeans’ Capabilities by Establishing the European Literacy Network (ELN), No. IS1401 2014 – 2018

Capabilities are not only abilities that reside inside humans, but they also comprise the political, social, and economic environment. Literacy is a capability whose fulcrum is far away from the individual, depending crucially on societal forces that can hinder or promote human development. The efficiency of this promotion is critically constrained by the availability of accurate knowledge. Knowing about literacy is contingent upon an interdisciplinary web of expertise that can, within a reasonable timeline, produce that sort of knowledge. Such networks already exist in Europe, but needs to be sustained so that it can face the demands of the new digital era. Through this Action, reading and writing research communities across Europe are joining, integrating their findings, and aligning their agendas so that they can: 1) develop an integrated and inclusive approach to foundational literacy across Europe; 2) devise a comprehensive framework of developmental aspects of literacy and education in a digital world; and 3) further improve literacy technologies. This will be valuable for promoting citizens’ interdependence, participation, and innovation, which are key assets to a united and diverse Europe. For that, Europe needs a Literacy Network via which capabilities can be strengthened to all of its citizens.

2012

EU Structural Funds Program: Operational Program for Development of Human Resources VP1; Measure: VP1-2.2-SHMM-08-V Development of Internationalization of Higher Education

Strengthening the cooperation of Lithuanian (Baltic) studies centers, Lithuanian communities and Lithuanian science and education abroad, VP1-2.2-ŠMM-08-V-02-006 2012-2015

The aim of this project is to strengthen the Lithuanian and Baltic centers abroad, as well as to improve communication between scientists and Lithuanian communities, to enable greater international cooperation. 10 foreign Lithuanian (Baltic) centers from Latvia, Poland, Russia, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Australia participated in the project. The aim of the project was to promote the internationalization of Lithuanian higher education and the intensification of the development of Lithuanian-speaking centers abroad, ensuring communication between Lithuanian foreign centers, foreign Lithuanian centers and the community in the country, and the communication between academic and broader societies. The project allowed Lithuanian teachers and students of foreign centers and Lithuanian communities abroad to have access to current Lithuanian situation. The problems were presented objectively and reasonably, to ensure close cooperation and expanded “Global Lithuania” mission in building relationships with foreign scientists, prospective students, providing information about Lithuanian higher education opportunities. Project objectives:

  1. to develop the relations between Lithuanian (Baltic) centers, Lithuanian science and education institutions and Lithuanian communities, to promote cultural exchange (the activities carried out: 3 cultural – scientific events abroad, 3 summer and winter Lithuanian language and culture courses, attended by 100 students and 20 teachers; organized 5 students practices and studies of 10 students at the Baltic centers for one semester;

  2. to improve the qualifications of teachers working in Lithuanian (Baltic) centers, to develop training methodology (2 remote courses for teachers working in Lithuanian (Baltic) centers, 10 textbooks and training tools, 2 online teaching programs for the Lithuanian language, 800 Lithuanian books bought for 10 centers).

Research Council of Lithuania programme

Political nation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 15th to the 16th centuries. Principles of Dukes Layer Integration, 03.09.09, No. VAT-55/2012, 2012-09-03 – 2014-08-31

The project dwells on the issues of the inquiry into the stratum of dukes as faced by modern historiography when trying to answer the question where the ample stratum of tribal aristocracy that was active in the 13th century had disappeared and why it became indistinguishable in the 14th century. The following alternatives are the most feasible among the possible answers to the said questions: the sources had changed which led to the change in the concepts used. Equally important were the qualitative changes of the state as with the consolidation of the central authority and expansion of the territory the space for the activities of individual dukes became limited. This is partially accountable for the fact that representatives of the stratum of dukes were losing their significance. It was not until the late 14th century that with the increase in the scope of the source base pertaining to the internal affairs of the GDL representatives of the stratum of dukes came back in view of the researchers.

History of St. Nicolaus Church and Kaunas Benedictine Convent, No. MIP-104/2012, 2012-09-14 – 2014-12-31

This research aims at the revealing of the history of Kaunas Benedictine convent (founded in the 17th century) and St. Michael church (built in the 15th century), as well as, at the evaluation of their impact on Lithuanian Church and society from artistic, historical and theological point of views. The research based on primary sources will add new facts about the history of the St. Michael church, will reveal circumstances of the foundation of Kaunas Benedictine convent, will point out the most important phases in the development of the convent, will evaluate its activities. Special attention will be paid to the shifts of historical epochs and the changes they used to make on the life of nuns in Lithuania. It is planned to make a research on the collective biography of the nuns of the Benedictine convent, to study features of their daily life, to investigate contacts with the dwellers of Kaunas and surrounding localities, to put light on the financial issues of the convent, to name most important donors and benefactors. The project will pay attention to the spiritual activities of the Benedictine convent. New facts will be added about the architectural and artistic legacy of the church and the convent, as well as about the artists who worked there. Architecture and art of the convent and the church will be evaluated in Lithuanian and European contexts.

Lithuanian National Catholic Church: Ethnic Identity and Emigration, No. VAT-59/2012, 03-09-2012 – 31/12/2013

The projected aimed to investigate the history of Lithuanian National Catholic Church (LNCC) since its establishment in the USA from the 20th century till nowadays, and to present it to the academic and also to the general public. The project was implemented in several directions:

  1. searching theoretical approaches (explaining the coherence between an addiction to religious communities and the preservation of national diasporas’ identity);
  2. searching theoretical approaches (explaining the coherence between an addiction to religious communities and the preservation of national diasporas’ identity);
  3. making a historical study of LCNN;
  4. doing a contemporary sociological survey of the identity of LNCC community.

The main results of the project were:

  • Scientific expedition to Scranton Pa., USA (March-April, 2013).
  • Audiovisual materials about the last community of Lithuanian National Catholic Church.
  • Interdisciplinary scientific conference “Migration and religion: crossroads of ethnicity and universality” (May 9, 2013, Kaunas);
  • Collection of scientific articles revealing LNCC’s history and today’s features, published in Oikos.
  • Lithuanian Migration and Diaspora studies. 2015, vol. 1 (19).
  • Documentary film “The Church in my heart”.

Diplomats of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Arbitration Service of the GDL in 1570 – 1618: relations with Russia, No. MIP-006/2012, 2012-03-01 – 31/12/2013

The main goal of the Project was to create an electronic resource where archival information regarding the diplomatic activities of the citizens of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) in the sphere of relations with Russia for the period between 1570 and 1618 would be collected. In the electronic resource it was planned to store the information found in historic sources regarding the diplomatic activities of particular people – biographical information and the descriptions of archival documents with signatures and brief annotations with the contents of these documents. When realizing this goal and the tasks set by this problem a database structure was created, i.e. the core information groups were formed: „missions“, „ambassadors“, “documents” and the search filters of documents related with these groups. First group contents information related with legations, in the second one is located information about GDL diplomatic representatives – members of diplomatic missions in Muscovite state – and in the third one records of documents related with specific embassy. The information is collected by using the publications of archival sources which were released at various periods and the work in archives and libraries of three countries – Lithuania, Poland and Russia. When implementing project activities the core sources with information regarding the diplomatic activities of the second part of the 16th century were examined: the codices of Lithuanian Metrica and the Embassy Codices of the Muscovite state, separate groups of diplomatic documents and official or semi- official and personal correspondence. Descriptions of the diplomatic missions of the Commonwealth in Muscovite state for the years.

1570-1601 were created by using the embassy instructions, transcripts of speeches of envoys, mandates, safe conduct documents, official correspondence, descriptions of the activities of envoys, correspondence between the ruler and state officials, international treaties and other documents. Each of these documents is linked with other information groups – biograms of GDL and Poland diplomatic envoys, which describe the career development of particular people, and the descriptions of documents, which compose documentation blocks of separate diplomatic missions. There is an information where the source is kept, references to its publications (if there is any), brief annotation of particular embassy documents and connections with diplomatic representatives in this most numerous data. During the implementation of the Project the information for scientific publications of the participants of the Project was collected. Based on this information articles that are corresponding with the topic of the Project were prepared.

PROGRAME FOR HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT FOR 2007-2013 “Support to Research Activities of Scientists and Other Researchers (Global Grant)”

Central-Eastern Europe: study of national narrative and memory policy making processes (1989 – 2011), No. VP1-3.1-SMM-07-K-02-024, 01-10-2012 – 30-09-2015

The historical narrative of the majority of the European countries is constructed on the basis of their uniqueness and exceptionality. Similarly, the visions of the “special way” dominate the national historiographies of the Central and Eastern European countries, which actively reconstructed their national histories during the last few decades. The renewed representations of the past are often founded on the notion of exceptionality and belief that the history of a specific country is unique and incompatible with the historical narratives of the neighboring countries, despite their common historical experiences. However, the provincialism of the local historiographies, and the lack of transnational reflections prevent the development of the research on the common history of the Central and Eastern Europe and the formation of more open national historiographies.

Research Council of Lithuania programme

A comprehensive study of Lithuanian text prosody: intonation, rhythm, and logical stress, 2012-02-28, No. LIT-5-4, 2012-03-01 – 2014-12-31

The aim of the project was to establish and to describe the main features and regularities of Lithuanian prosody focusing on the rhythm, intonation of speech, and stress. The experimental investigations were based on a speech corpus of 35 hours (consisting of the records of the read and memorized speech, of spontaneous and semi-spontaneous speech, and of public and private speech), which was annotated by intonation-oriented tags. The audio content of the speech corpus is uploaded to the Database of Spoken Lithuanian Language and is accessible to all Internet users.

The outcomes of this project include two computational tools developed with practical applications in mind. The first tool represents a computational model that tries to implement the approximate similarity measure between two phrase intonation contours as it is perceived by human listeners. The tool can be used to classify Lithuanian phrase intonation contours into similarity groups, it can be integrated into computer programs that need to match one intonation contour against another. Examples of such applications are speaker identification by voice, identification of speaker‘s physical and emotional state (lies vs. tells the truth, sober vs. under the influence of alcohol or drugs). The second tool represents a computational model for predicting/generating intonation contour on the basis of the phonetic transcription of any Lithuanian text. This tool is based on the Hidden Markov models (HMM) technique that was adapted to Lithuanian by the means of Lithuanian intonation corpus. This model can be integrated into Lithuanian text-to-speech systems to increase the naturalness of the synthesized speech.

The results of this research were presented at 22 international conferences and seminars and were summarized and published in one study (Kazlauskienė A. „Pirminio lietuvių kalbos ritmo dėsningumai“. Kaunas: Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto leidykla, 2015) and 12 articles.

2011

Program: Operational Program for the Development of Human Resources; Measure of Priority for the Operational Program: Support for Research Activities of Researchers and Other Researchers (Global Grant)

Ethnic Music Revival Movement in Lithuania from the 1960s to the 2010s 2011-03-24, No. VP1-3.1-ŠMM-07-K-01-161, 2011-03-24 – 2015-03-23

The idea of the research is to study current forms of recovery of Lithuanian ethnic music. The research is based on theories of ethnic / folk music developed by foreign ethnologists, anthropologists and ethnologists. The aim of the research is to investigate the forms of the recovery of Lithuanian ethnic music, their musical and socio-cultural aspects the ethnic music from the 1970s till the 21st century Research tasks:

  • to collect data on current forms of recreation of ethnic music in Lithuania;
  • to investigate the present-day use of ethnic music and its changes in the ethnic music revival movement;
  • to study the forms of the dissemination of ethnic music – concerts, festivals, recordings, etc .;
  • analyse the organization, structure and key actors of the movement;
  • to investigate the influence of local and global factors on the revival movement of ethnic music;
  • to study the values and goals of participants, and other socio-cultural aspects;
  • to examine the related state strategy and documents.

The project was based on the methodology of ethnology / anthropology and ethnomusicology. The main product of the project is the published monograph “Ethnic Music Revival Movement in Lithuania from the 1960s to the 2010s”. To summarize the research data, the path taken by historical folkloric movements that started back in the late 19th century is revealed, and stylization from the inter- war and post-war periods is also assessed, as well as forms of ethnic music’s contemporary continuance. Great attention is given to the revival of stylized and authentic ethnic music from the 1960s, analyzing the features of song and dance ensemble, folk music band, dance collective and folkloric ensemble movements, researching the relationships between ethnic and contemporary music. The organization and management of all forms of revival movements was also evaluated, as well as the value provisions of their participants, paying attention to globalization and its impact on modern society.

The European Regional Development Fund, the “Lithuanian language for information society” programme

System of syntactic and semantic analysis of the Lithuanian language for application in corpus, internet, and public sector, 2011-07-04, No. VP2-3.1-IVPK-12-K-01-007, 2011-07-04 – 2014-11-30

The project was implemented in 2012-2015 and was funded by the European Regional Development Fund. It was one of the 5 projects funded in the programme “Lithuanian language for information society”. In addition to Vytautas Magnus University (coordinator), the partners of the project included Kaunas University of Technology and private IT companies Fotonija, Tilde, Itekas, Tetragrama, and ATEA. About 15 researchers from Vytautas Magnus took part in the activities of the project involving research groups from the Centre of Computational linguistics (the Faculty of Humanities) and the Faculty of Informatics:

The main results of the project was setting up an information system combining Lithuanian language tools and resources for diverse language research and application tasks, semantika.lt.

The most important features of the developed information system are as follows:

  • The system offers NLP public services free of charge;
  • It is the first system for the Lithuanian language, which provides natural language processing solutions and basic technologies, including automatic syntactical analysis, automatic lexico-morphological analysis, etc.;
  • The developed platform creates the necessary conditions for the future developments of more advanced language technologies: ontologies, semantic search, knowledge extraction, grammatical rules, etc.

Presently, freely accessible language services generate more than 100 thousand transactions per year. The successful completion of the project resulted in its extension, SEMANTIKA-2 project, which started in 2017.

European Social Fund for 2007-2013 operational programme: Development of Human Resources, Priority 2 “Lifelong Learning” VP1-2.2-ŠMM-05-K measure: “Designing and implementing language teaching, entrepreneurship and innovative methods of education”.

Synergy of subject matter and foreign language, VP1-2.2-ŠMM-05-K-02-025

National project Synergy of Subject Matter and Foreign Language was implemented in 2011-2013 and supported by European Social Fund for 2007-2013 operational programme: Development of Human Resources, Priority 2 “Lifelong Learning” VP1-2.2-ŠMM-05-K measure: “Designing and implementing language teaching, entrepreneurship and innovative methods of education”. The VMU Institute of Foreign Languages was the project coordinator, while the project partners consisted of Alytus Centre of Vocational Education, Kaunas Jesuit Gymnasium, Kaunas Teacher Qualification Centre, Šiauliai Didždvario Gymnasium and Šiauliai University.

The implementation of the project was built on extensive research and expertise of VMU Institute of Foreign languages in the field of applied linguistics including language learning strategies and techniques as well as content and language integrated learning (CLIL) methodology. The overall aim of the project was to develop foreign language (English, German or French) competences of non-linguistic subject teachers, focusing on their general and subject specific language skills along with their skills in CLIL methodology: CLIL lesson planning, classroom management, language learning strategies, using ICT as a teaching resource as well as promoting cultural awareness and multilingualism.

The project made a strong impact on the promotion of innovative CLIL approach in secondary education in differ regions of Lithuania. In total there were 121 teachers of secondary education from Kaunas, Šiauliai and Alytus who participated in the project: 95 teachers improved their competences of English, 17 – of German and 9 – of French.

The project also aimed at introducing secondary school students to new ideas and concepts in traditional curriculum subjects, using the foreign language as the medium of communication and thereby enhancing the students’ learning experience by exploiting the synergies between learning a language and a non-linguistic subject. In total there were 827 secondary school students who participated in CLIL lessons where teachers from the project target group applied the project innovations: 675 students participated in English integrated lessons, 94 – in German, and 58 – in French. The project produced a wide spectrum of deliverables including three volumes of methodology for the development of general language skills of English, German and French, for the development of subject specific language skills of English, German and French and for the development of CLIL competences. Through the joint effort of project researchers and secondary school teachers, detailed scenarios (including lesson plans and teaching resources) for a broad scope of non-linguistic subjects were prepared in three languages along with culture cards and basic communication cards – all serving for the continuous implementation of CLIL in secondary education. In the final project conference, project participants together with stakeholders prepared guidelines for CLIL implementations in secondary education.

To ensure a strong social impact of project outcomes discussions about the benefits and challenges of CLIL were held in partner institutions engaging not only the teaching personnel, but also administration, secondary school students and parent representatives. The project contributed to further discussions and promotion of CLIL at the policy making level. Project deliverables and the generated know-how has been continuously presented in various teacher education seminars and conferences.

Latvia–Lithuania Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2007–2013

Development of Research Infrastructure for Education in the Humanities in Eastern Latvia and Lithuania (Kaunas) – HipiLATLIT, No. LV-LT/2.1./LLIII-207/2011, 2011-01-03 – 2013-01-02

The objective of the project „HipiLatLit” was to modernize the field of Humanities in tertiary education in Eastern Latvia and Lithuania (Kaunas) by developing a joint research infrastructure. The project includes the following partners: Rezekne Higher Education Institute (LP), Vytautas Magnus University (P2), and Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Latvia (P3). The Project was developed in two areas:

  1. on the basis of cooperation between LP and P2, the planned research activities were supplemented by a cooperation treaty for the exchange of students and university lecturers;

  2. cooperation between LP and P3 was mainly implemented in applying computer tools and resources for achieving the planned aims.

The main results of the Project activities are:

  • Compilation of the Parallel corpus (Lithuanian-Latvian and Latvian-Lithuanian, approx. 8 million running words).
  • A database of texts in the Latgalian language; a special corpus of Latgalian, 1 million running words;
  • Setting up of “Lithuanian-Latvian-Latgalian Language Lexicon”, which includes 10,000 words of Lithuanian contrasted with the material from the Latvian and Latgalian corpus and the existing dictionaries of Latvian and Latgalian;
  • Setting up of a joint interdisciplinary doctoral programme in Baltistics (a philological programme, emphasizing acquisition of the most recent IT technologies, using databases and relevant language tools for a particular analysis of language).

Regional competitiveness is characterized by such factors as human resources, cultural, social and economic capital as well as environmental quality. All of these aspects are important in attracting highly qualified labour/ manpower and for improving preconditions for the development of innovations. In this context it is essential to preserve the territorial identity, unique regional culture and territorial diversity. Following this line of reasoning, the project aimed at developing a specific concept which would promote the use of the unique potential of the eastern region of Latgale and Lithuania for raising competitiveness of the region in the European Union and in the Baltic Sea region.

The innovative character of the project is seen in the use of technologies still rarely employed in the Baltic States, development of comparable and specialized corpora as well as initiating research on lexicons. Just like the development of a joint doctoral programme as one of the conditions for a common research infrastructure in the Humanities, the outcomes of the project have no analogues in Latvia or Lithuania.

National Program for the Development of Lithuanian Studies for 2009-2015

The research of contemporary urban culture, 2011-04-28, No. LIT-4-22, 2011-04-28 – 2013-11-30

The project was conducted according to the calendrical plan of work, which contained 4 interrelated activities.

  • The first activity – Ethnographic fieldwork – was conducted during the entire period of project implementation. Ethnographic expeditions were undertaken in all the biggest towns of Lithuania. New data was collected by applying different methods: participant observation, interview, in-depth interview, semi-structured interview, structured interview, questionnaire, collection of audio and visual material (filming and photographing). During the period of project implementation more than 300 files containing material on different topics were collected (more than 200 files were digitized, electronic database was enlarged by 8793 new ethnographic items).
  • The second activity – Scientific research – comprised research into the processes of contemporary urban culture transformation, contemporary folk art in the city, and the influence of urban environment on the way of living of townspeople.

In order to conduct this study, project’s researchers collected new ethnographic material and wrote scientific articles basing their research on new data (by now 8 articles had been published in national and international scientific journals and 11 articles had been submitted for publication). The research was also presented in national and international conferences (the total number of papers read by the project’s researchers is 33).

On the 20th September 2013 a project conference “Research into Contemporary Urban Culture” was held at Vytautas Magnus University (further VMU). At the conference the results achieved during the project implementation period were generalized, and papers by project participants, scientists and students from VMU were read. Project activities and results are presented on the website (http://etnologija.vdu.lt) of the Department of Cultural studies and Ethnology of the Faculty of Humanities at VMU (see links to News; Activities – Projects; Ethnologist Club; Conferences). Participants of the project delivered public lectures to academic community and other members of the society (total number of lectures and seminars delivered by the researchers is 11).

Project implementers also presented the research results obtained during the project implementation period by participating and reading papers in scientific conferences as well as publishing articles. Before starting the activities related to the improvement of the database system, a detailed analysis was conducted and possibilities to improve the database of the Department of Cultural studies and Ethnology at VMU were considered. During the period of project implementation a number of changes were made to the database (e.g. a possibility to download several photos as one attachment was created; the new function of “massive editing” allows performing tasks more quickly because the main data parameters may be edited on one window; date control programming changes, etc.). After the improvement, additional information fields need to be filled in when new data is entered (e.g. information about the project, summaries in Lithuanian and in English, period of research, etc.). Visitors of the database do not need to register as it was before (database http://etnologijadb.vdu.lt content is available to any interested visitor). When registration of the visitors was abolished, the rules for visitors of the database were changed as well. At the moment only database fillers and administrators have to register. The database was being tested and filled in with new data during all the period of project implementation (at the moment the number of items is 45879). New fields with additional information are also being filled in.