19th July 1999

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It has been announced that the University of Ulster has won support from the European Union for 150k ECU first phase of its major new UK-Finland/SPIRIT project. The project is being funded under the EU's MLIS (Multilingual Information Society) programme of the European Commission's DG XIII.

Following the strategic initiative of the European Commission to encourage the use of national languages, the SPIRIT initiative (Supporting Peripheral Industries with Realistic applications of Internet-based Technologies) has been set up specifically to support and target new market opportunities for small businesses. It aims to do this by providing a dedicated Internet-based service for tackling the problems small businesses encounter in translating foreign language documents.


In this first phase, SPIRIT is analysing the requirements of small business in the timber industry for multilingual services in the border regions of Ireland and Finnish Karelia. However, the strategic aim of SPIRIT is to develop generic, Internet-based language solutions for businesses in all sectors

The idea for SPIRIT grew out of initial discussions between Dr Gerard Parr and Professor David Eastwood, Directors of Causeway Data Communications Ltd; Derek Bond of the Ulster Business School; Paul Hadfield of the University of Ulster's Language for Exporters Initiative (FLEX); and Kaisa Vayrynen, Director of the East-West Innovation Centre (EWIC) of the University of Joensuu in Finland

Paul Hadfield is co-ordinating the project, which involves partners from

The Training and Employment Agency, Northern Ireland
The University of Joensuu Finland
The Northern Ireland Timber Trade Association,
Michael Xynos Translations Limited, Athens
Northern Ireland Quality Centre
Causeway Data Communications (http://www.cdc.ulst.ac.uk).
Government agencies both in Northern Ireland and Finland believe that the project has great potential in establishing the region's profile locally and internationally by providing the SPIRIT Service to existing T&EA and LEDU client companies.

Mr Adam Ingram, MP, Minister for Economic Development, has welcomed the news: "The development of geographically remote areas is an important feature for the economic development of the entire region. This inter-country initiative is a clear example of partnership in action, which seeks to harness modern technology to ensure everyone in our community can share in a prosperous future."

Mr Muammer Ali, Foreign Trade Adviser at T&E Keskus in Joensuu who attended the launch of the project said in Finland today that he welcomed the initiative. He described it as a "flagship project and one which clearly had the potential to make a significant contribution to the economic development of the Border Region between Finland and Russia and between Northern Ireland and Finland". "Such projects," he said, "demonstrated the value of co-operation and people pooling their expertise and skills."

The SPIRIT project will offer a wide range of development initiatives including an on-line multilingual documentation service, translation tools and a language database of specialist and technical terms. Accessed through the Internet, the service will be of direct value to freelance translators, language service agencies and small businesses. It will enable them to resolve a number of diverse issues from contractual and local planning issues to the development and promotion of multilingual, cross-border trade networks.

Ms Kaisa Vayrynen, Director of EWIC added: "The use of advanced telecommunications is increasingly a key requirement for the region's infrastructure and in economic development. Bringing relevant information services to businesses enhances a company's social potential. Furthermore, in the context of ongoing training programmes which the main partners, EWIC and FLEX are set up to provide, it will put in place the necessary strategies to enable small business organisations to realise their competitive potential in a wider marketplace."

The scheme will run until February 2000. Through the SPIRIT Website (http://spirit.infc.ulst.ac.uk) small business, language service agencies and freelance translators are now being invited to state or discuss with the Project Management Team how such a service might serve their professional or business requirements. Organisations or companies interested in further information on SPIRIT can access the project web-server or e-mail the Project Manager, Ms Regine McCullough (r.mccullough@ulst.ac.uk) or the co-ordinator Dr Paul Hadfield (PJA.Hadfield@ulst.ac.uk).

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk