A joint team from TCD and QUB have been awarded €3.7 million from to establish a Living Observatory of Shared Languages and Identities on the island of Ireland. LIFELANGS will be launched online on Thursday 4 December.

New North South Research Project on Languages and Identities 

LIFELANGS - a new Living Observatory of Shared Language and Identities - is an exciting research project dedicated to studying the languages and identities shared across different communities in Ireland. It is an ambitious, collaborative project which will investigate languages and identities across the island of Ireland.

People in Ireland north and south, east and west, have expressed the desire for a more inclusive society, with a focus on better supporting language learning and promoting understanding between different cultures. Our goal is to help build a more inclusive and stronger future for everyone, where we will know more about each other and we will understand each other better. 

LIFELANGS is led by a team of multidisciplinary researchers from the Centre for Language Education Research at Queen’s University Belfast and the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. The team is led jointly by two Principal Investigators, Dr Aisling O’Boyle and Professor Lorna Carson.

During the project researchers will gather evidence about how people use different languages and live in different cultural settings. The project aims to create a true living observatory of shared languages and identities where people can contribute, learn, document, and share information/knowledges. Working together with local communities, researchers will collect data on how people of all ages learn and use languages—both spoken and signed—throughout their lives, in places like homes, schools, workplaces, and social spaces.

Full details on the LIFELANGS website:  www.lifelangs.com

LIFELANGS is supported by Ireland’s Higher Education Authority (HEA) through its North South Research Programme. This is a collaborative scheme supported by the Government of Ireland’s Shared Island Fund. The funds allocated are by the HEA on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science (DFHERIS). LIFELANGS is funded as an Emerging Hubs of Excellence under Strand II of the North South Research Programme (2025 – 2029).