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Cambridge Language Sciences

Interdisciplinary Research Centre
 
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From revitalising language learning in the UK to harnessing multilingualism in Indian primary schools, achieving real-world impact is core to language sciences at Cambridge University and underpins our research.

An interdisciplinary approach strengthens our ability to tackle complex challenges in health, education, and civil society, including through the development and application of speech and language technologies.

Collaboration with health and education professionals, policy-makers, and business, brings valuable new perspectives and knowledge to our research and is critical to maximising impact. 

We support impact activities by bringing together expertise and diverse academic perspectives through research facilitation, knowledge exchange, funding, workshops and research meetings, and more. 

Examples of Cambridge Language Sciences (CLS) support for impact activities include:

Knowledge exchange

Ultrasound tongue imaging workshop

This CLS-funded workshop brought together researchers and speech and language therapists from across the Cambridge University campus with a team from Telemed Medical Systems, an industry partner working with Dr Calbert Graham (Phonetics Laboratory). The workshop established some new and ongoing connections between researchers and clinicians. Dr Graham and Telemed are working on a commercial application of their work via a new startup company.

Policy

Educated Brain seminar series

CLS co-ran this two-year ESRC-funded seminar series in collaboration with Cambridge Neuroscience and Cambridge Public Policy. It brought together neuroscience, psychology, and linguistics researchers with educational practitioners, policy-makers and third sector organisations, to discuss evidence-based policy and best practice and tackle “neuromyths”. The series also provided training to early-career researchers in writing policy briefs. The series concluded with a research and policy showcase hosted by Cambridge MP, Daniel Zeichner, at the House of Commons.

Public engagement

CLS also supports public engagement activities such as the World of Languages pop-up museum, language-related events at the Cambridge Festival and helping researchers communicate findings to a wider audience through media. Examples include articles published in The Conversation:

Impact Fund

The Language Sciences Impact Fund is a small grants fund which supports interdisciplinary impact activities in the language sciences. Impact activities supported by the fund include, meetings or workshops with non-academic partners to facilitate knowledge exchange, short-term placements of researchers into research user organisations, or of research users into the university, public engagement activities and skills training.

Other ways language sciences research at Cambridge is making a difference

 

What we do

Cambridge Language Sciences is an Interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. Our virtual network connects researchers from five schools across the university as well as other world-leading research institutions. Our aim is to strengthen research collaborations and knowledge transfer across disciplines in order to address large-scale multi-disciplinary research challenges relating to language research.

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