Language Sciences Institute (LSI)

Description

The Language Sciences Institute (LSI) aims to connect innovation and expertise in research and learning and will use the collective power and multi-disciplinary strengths of the UHI academic network to reconfigure current approaches to the revitalisation of minority languages. With a particular focus on the traditional Gaelic speaking communities of Scotland, the LSI will build on the work of the Soillse network through the legacy CIALL project.

The distinctive features of the LSI are:

• A research and learning institute, embedded within a minority language community, with a focus on understanding the dynamic linkages between Gaelic communities.
• An open and collaborative approach to minority language research that engages communities in a process of reflection and learning.
• The co-design of new research methodologies and innovative knowledge exchange processes that will help develop the capacity of the university to address a sociolinguistic challenge.
• Engagement with the sociolinguistic challenge from both a national and international perspective.
• Use of a whole-systems approach to language research and practice, centred on addressing the challenges of social and economic sustainability within minority language communities.
• A languages science approach to research, linking localised minority language situations to international perspectives on language revitalisation processes and which involve the community in the design of new interventions, policy and research.

It is envisaged the research legacy of the Soillse partnership will enable the LSI to provide support in creating a sustainable future for the Gaelic language and culture in Scotland. Future policies and strategies that are articulated through National Language Plans, and the Language Plans of public bodies, need to be grounded in the reality of the Gaelic language condition. The LSI recognises this is particularly important in those locations where Gaelic is still spoken as a vernacular language by a significant proportion of the community.

The Institute is a research unit of the University of the Highlands and Islands whose stated focus is the revitalisation of minority languages, with particular attention to Scotland's Gaelic-speaking communities. Its current vehicle is the CIALL initiative, supported by the Scottish Funding Council, which succeeded the Soillse inter-university network after that network's funded phase ended; the Institute also takes part in FOSTERLANG, a Horizon Europe project on linguistic diversity in Europe. Its news pages record dated outputs and events through September 2026.

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No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

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University of the Highlands and Islands
Inverness