EUROPEAN MASTERS IN TRANSLATION NETWORK

Annual report 2016

EMT Board

03/03/2017
 Table of contents
Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 3
1. EMT milestones and internal matters ................................................................................... 4
a) Plans for the future of EMT.................................................................................................. 4
b) Meetings of the EMT Network .............................................................................................. 4
Activities of the working groups .......................................................................................... 5
c) Meetings of the EMT Board ................................................................................................. 7
d) New name for former EMT observers .................................................................................. 8
e) Follow-up of spin-off projects .............................................................................................. 8
AGORA cross-border traineeship scheme for translation students................................. 8
Optimising translator training through collaborative technical translation (OTCT) ............ 9
2. EMT-DGT cooperation ....................................................................................................... 9
a) Translating Europe .............................................................................................................. 9
Translating Europe Forum ................................................................................................... 9
Translating Europe Workshops ............................................................................................ 9
b) Visiting Translator Scheme (VTS) ...................................................................................... 15
c) EMT trainees in DGT ......................................................................................................... 16
d) EMT universities and MT@EC .......................................................................................... 16
e) DGT training activities with EMT ...................................................................................... 16
DGT Academy ................................................................................................................... 16
Other training courses ........................................................................................................ 17
f) The EMT secretariat in DGT ............................................................................................. 18
3. External matters.................................................................................................................. 18
a) Relations with the LIND Board .......................................................................................... 18
b) PAMCIT ............................................................................................................................. 19
Conclusions and Outlook ........................................................................................................... 19

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SUMMARY
In line with the 2014-2019 framework of activities, the EMT work programme for 2016
prioritised:
Developing plans for a sustainable future for the EMT
Promotion of EMT outreach activities with a view to involving students and graduates
more closely in the EMT, to enhancing the visibility of EMT and fostering the
cooperation with the language industry
Mid-term review (EMT Board Strategy Reflection Group)

2016 was dominated by the discussion about the future of the EMT. The consultation process
involving DGT departments and the entire EMT network revealed that self-governance of the
EMT network remains the long-term goal. DGT will continue to support the EMT but to
prepare it for the future the members need to take more ownership of the network and to link
the EMT objectives to the broader EU aims in the field of youth and education.

The EMT Network met in Brussels in the spring and at the Constantine the Philosopher
University in Nitra, Slovakia, in the autumn (the second network meeting outside Brussels).
At each of the meetings the Working Groups presented their intermediate results and decided
on the next steps in order to carry on their respective activities (setting-up a research proposal,
analysing surveys, drafting guidelines etc.). The EMT Board met in regular
videoconferences, and twice in face-to-face meetings.

EMT universities made good use of Translating Europe, both as regards the workshops
organised by/with them in the Member States and the annual Translating Europe Forum in
Brussels, where many of them participated actively in the various sessions around the theme
of Translation tools and technologies.

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1. EMT MILESTONES AND INTERNAL MATTERS
a) Plans for the future of EMT
The future of the EMT was the main topic of discussions in 2016. Longer-term options for the
development of the network were explored both in a consultation with the DGT language
departments and with EMT members. The latter started with an online survey in June 2016 to
which 43 member programmes (out of 62) responded. Based on the input to this survey the
EMT Board drafted a paper that was used as the basis for the plenary debate at the EMT
Network meeting at Nitra in mid-October 2016.

The discussion revealed that continued support from DGT was needed in order to guarantee a
level playing field for universities from all Member States. Three original options for the
future where DGT would only maintain moral support, transforming the EMT into an
independent international association or where DGT would cut its operational support were
discarded. DGT will continue to support EMT morally, operationally and financially in a
sustainable way. However, to be able to do so EMT members have to take more ownership of
the network, cultivate it and make its activities more visible, in particular when they relate to
overarching EU objectives. For spring 2017, the EMT Board will prepare a new strategy
paper "EMT 3.0" in which they will formulate the objectives and instruments of the EMT
network over the horizon 2019-2024.

b) Meetings of the EMT Network

Brussels
The main topic of the meeting on 17 March in Brussels was "Work placements,
professionalization and graduates' employment".
DGT presented its short-term unpaid training placements for EMT students. There was great
interest in the initiative, and the presentation was followed by a lively discussion that led to
many suggestions for improvement. Thanks to the constructive feedback from EMT members
the scheme could be further simplified. A note explaining the application procedure was
subsequently circulated to EMT members and saved on the EMT wiki.
The Dutch department's Quality Officer & Main Terminologist explained how the department
had used the unpaid traineeships to cooperate with Dutch and Flemish universities on a
terminology project. Two MA students and a PhD student, who had all recently completed the
DGT traineeship, presented the student's perspective; the traineeships had been highly
appreciated because they provided practical work experience. The NL terminologist presented
the DGT's perspective; it had also been a very worthwhile experience for the Dutch
department, since the students could do in-depth terminological work for which there was
otherwise no capacity in DGT. This was linked to the EMT priority for 2016 of involving
students and graduates more closely in the EMT. The contribution of the students was highly
appreciated, as was the fact that two of them presented in German, thus enhancing the
multilingual aspect.
The Board members Teresa Tomaszkiewicz and Sonia Vandepitte presented the final proposal
for the Mid-term review. The aim of the review was to check the state of the network, report
significant changes in the programmes that might affect EMT member status; the progress
made by the member programmes since the last selection round, specifically on points for

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improvement that had been identified by the assessors in the selection round, and encourage
the exchange of good practices.
Teresa Tomaszkiewicz reported on the efforts of the Board to raise EMT visibility. It had
been decided to display the EMT logo in all communications and to make better use of social
media. A Facebook page for EMT was created where EMT members can communicate what
is happening in their universities. It was stressed that raising the awareness about the EMT
label was a responsibility for all network members.

With a view to further strengthening cooperation with the language industry, the next day
many EMT members participated in the Translating Europe workshop "Quality Work
Placements for Translation Students" (see section 2 a) below).

Nitra

The second annual network meeting took place on 18 October in Nitra (Slovakia). The
morning session was focused on the future of the EMT network. As explained above it
became clear that EMT members would like DGT to continue to give financial, operational
and moral support. In return, network members committed themselves to contributing more
actively to the operation of the network. It was also agreed that the objectives for the next
EMT network should be linked to the broader EU aims of investing in young people, in
innovation and in job opportunities.

The afternoon session was devoted to the exchange of good practices. The first part focused
on Domain specialisation. Dr. Rosario Martn Ruano of the University of Salamanca
presented "Specialisation in translator training: challenges and choices". Dr. Emlia Perez
together with two of her students, Eva Matov and Jana Ukuov, of the Constantine the
Philosopher University in Nitra discussed "Translation Service Provision and Collaborative
Learning Approach in AVT Training". In the second part of the afternoon members of WG 2
presented their best practices in the use of technologies for teaching and evaluation purposes.
The presentations were saved on the EMT wiki for further consultation.

A day before the Nitra meeting the mid-term review announced at the beginning of the year
was officially launched. Per e-mail the EMT member programmes received the link to an
online survey to which they are requested to reply before 15 February 2017. All relevant info
is available on the EMT wiki.

Activities of the working groups

Working Group 1 Employment and future of the profession: working together with WG 3
Traineeship and Professionalization, received more than 1,700 answers to the EMT
graduate employment survey launched at the end of 2015. Local administrative conditions and
academic traditions led to higher return rates from certain countries, namely: Belgium,
France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

A detailed statistical analysis of the data is still to be carried out, but some trends are already
clear. Over three quarters of the respondents were in full time or part-time employment, with
well over half working as salaried employees in the private sector and another quarter being
self-employed. Out of those in work, well over half worked in the language industry, with
over two-thirds of the latter working as translators, revisers or proof-readers. Internships were
seen as a stepping stone to employment in many countries, though overall, a quarter of the

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EMT graduates in the survey had not completed an internship as part of their course. As the
remits of working groups 1 and 3 are obviously closely related, the two working groups have
decided to merge.

Future activity will concentrate on the definition of the competences that future translation
degree holders will need to have on the market. This will be done in a close cooperation with
the professional organisations working in partnership with the EMT. The outcome of these
consultations and discussions will then, hopefully, feed into the reflexion on the application
and admission process for the next EMT round in 2019.

Working group 2 Translation tools and technology: At the Brussels meeting in March,
Andrew Rothwell presented a research project based on DGT's proposal on "research into
how CAT tools affected the way translators perceived the text, as well as the speed and
quality of translations, identifying practices that foster cohesion and coherence when using the
available tools". In the margins of the network meeting, he convened a well-attended ad-hoc
meeting, which ultimately led to a two-day "Next Generation Translation Tools" workshop at
Swansea University on Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 July 2016.

Day 1 was a free-to-attend public colloquium featuring 17 invited presentations by cutting

edge researchers on CAT tools. Speakers were from 9 European countries, and mostly from
EMT universities. DGT was represented by Josep Bonet, who opened the event, and there
were also language industry representatives from SDL International and Televic Education.
70 attendees included staff and students from Swansea, other UK universities (Cardiff,
Durham, Aston, Bristol, UCL, Southampton, Stirling), and local freelance translators. Day 2
was a project-planning workshop with WG2 members, to develop collaborative project
proposals. A review of funding opportunities by Tom Svoboda concluded that there were
currently no suitable EU funding streams. Plans were developed to seek other funding sources
for three future sub-projects, to look in more detail into: 1. CAT user experience across a wide
range of language pairs; 2. Institutional ergonomics of CAT tools (DGT); 3. Enhancement of
electronic resources for Community Interpreting practitioners. A funding application for the
second of these is ongoing.

Working Group 2 is currently preparing a survey on tools and technologies in translation. The
survey will be a re-run of the 2012 survey conducted under the OPTIMALE project. At
present, the structure and content are being drafted and consulted. The intention is twofold:
On the one hand, to keep as much material of the Optimale survey as possible, to ensure
comparability of data and, eventually derive trends. On the other hand, an update is necessary
to take into account recent developments in the technology field. The survey will be launched
officially during the March 2017 EMT meeting in Brussels, or shortly afterwards.

Another topic under scrutiny of WG2 is the creation of an expert group to enter into
negotiations with translation software vendors to achieve favourable conditions for EMT
members.

Working Group 3 Traineeship and Professionalization: The issues concerning not only the
training of students, but also the training of trainers, which were addressed in the last two
meetings (Nitra and Brussels), gave us an impulse to conduct a thorough research on the
common ground of these items. Therefore an investigation of the skills the students have to
attain to satisfy traineeship providers and future employers, as well as the analysis of

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professional expertise the trainers have to demonstrate to train and educate specialists
demanded by the industry, have to be performed, critically evaluating the competencies the
former have to acquire and the latter have to teach. To implement the initiative the WG1 and
WG3 have decided to merge, with the aim to achieve more comprehensive and applicable
results. The initiative of re-assessing the competence wheel examining its elements against the
modern realia shall be undertaken in close cooperation with language industry representatives
and with the aim to integrate the results of this research into application and admission
process for the next EMT round in 2019.

Working Group 4 Collaborative learning and e-learning: The data-gathering on the

structure and features of current student projects, as well as EMT members use of e-learning
was completed during 2016. Information was submitted by 27 members via a comprehensive
survey. In the first instance, this data was used to create a shared Google calendar containing
details of projects and their timings. All EMT representatives have been given editing rights
to the Calendar, which contains a wealth of information about the projects and is intended to
help EMT members to plan future activities e.g. by allowing them to find partner
institutions for various forms of collaboration, such as cross-university student project teams
or mentors for project work.

The survey data included details of the activities and competences covered in existing
projects, as well as information on the needs of EMT members who do not run projects. This
depth of coverage enabled WG4 to propose the compilation of a guide for running student
projects. The guide would be shared among EMT members, thus serving to disseminate
existing best practices and to provide guidance for members with no or relatively little
experience of student projects. Work began on this output towards the end of 2016; the guide
will be introduced and disseminated to EMT members in the first half of 2017.

Another proposed output of WG4s work on students projects was a shared repository of
source texts to provide materials for EMT members wishing to run projects. Although
desirable, this could pose a number of challenges regarding permissions to reuse texts,
availability of materials for a wide range of language combinations and directions, reliability
of free, secure, ongoing file storage, maintenance and updating of the repository, etc. WG4
began to investigate the feasibility of such a repository in late 2016 and will report back to
members during 2017.

c) Meetings of the EMT Board

The EMT Board held two facetoface meetings in Brussels and six videoconferences or
"virtual meetings" between the face-to-face meetings. Though the online connection was not
always perfect, virtual meetings proved an efficient way of exchanging views on and
advancing with key issues (e.g. coordination of the working groups, Network meeting
agendas, mid-term review, future of the network, etc.).

In its first face-to-face meeting on 16 March 2016 the Board focused on the key topic of the
year, i.e. the plans for the future of EMT. It agreed to consult the whole network and decided
on the questions to be put forward. The Board also discussed the future cooperation
possibilities with PAMCIT (see section 3 b) below) and fine-tuned the upcoming mid-term
review.

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The Board held its second face-to-face meeting on 26 October (preceding the Translating
Europe Forum) to analyse the outcomes of the plenary discussion in Nitra on the EMT future
and to decide on the next steps to take. The plan for the future objectives of the EMT network
would be presented in a new document EMT 3.0.

The Board meeting was followed by a meeting with the LIND Board to explore concrete
proposals aiming at strengthening the cooperation with the language industry in the future.
The main ideas proposed were: continue to work on joint surveys, collaborate in the
organisation of webinars, of joint research projects and on trainees' skills cards (see also
section 3 a) below).

The minutes of the Board meetings have been circulated to the network members via the EMT
Yammer group and saved on the EMT wiki where they can be consulted for more detailed
information.

d) New name for former EMT observers

Following a request from the Swiss EMT programmes, the designation "observer status" was
changed to non-EU member in May 2016. The new designation reflects the fact that they have
gone through the same rigorous selection process and participate in the network activities on
the same level as the other members.

e) Follow-up of spin-off projects

AGORA cross-border traineeship scheme for translation students

AGORA aimed to use the EMT Network to overcome obstacles facing cross-border
traineeship schemes for translation students. Although the project officially ended in the
summer of 2015, the partners decided to continue without EU funding under the leadership of
Bologna University. In the margins of the EMT network meeting, the Agora consortium met
in Brussels on 18 March .The meeting was attended by representatives of the following EMT
Universities: Alcala, Bologna, Brussels Marie Haps, Budapest, Durham, Geneva, Ghent,
Leuven, Rome, Vienna which had already participated in the old AGORA, and Porto,
Swansea and Thessaloniki that wanted to join the new one. They discussed the agreement for
the new consortium to be signed by the end of 2016 (with 3 levels of membership: full,
associate and honorary), selected the 3 members of the Provisional Board (Bologna, Vienna,
Ghent); and approved the development plan for the new Consortium Agora 2. They agreed to
collaborate with other internship schemes like EGPS (European Graduate Placement Scheme)
and to stick to the idea of reciprocity in order to guarantee the balance between offer and
demand. They decided to aim at a better geographical distribution of the scheme and to
promote AGORA especially among German, French and English-speaking universities and
companies. According to the AGORA newsletter 1 published in May, two new companies in
Germany and France (BAB.LA GmbH and Ecrans des Mondes) and the Universit de
Lorraine in Metz had joined AGORA, while Brussels VUB, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Dublin,
Riga Technical University, Warsaw, Birmingham, Leeds and Portsmouth were preparing their
membership.

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 Optimising translator training through collaborative technical translation (OTCT)

Launched in October 2014, the OTCT project is a two-year Erasmus strategic partnership
coordinated by Rennes 2 University. The aim is to enhance translator training through
technical translation sessions in simulated professional conditions. Two sessions were held in
2015, and one in March 2016, in which students from the partner institutions translated the
same English documents into their mother tongue. In parallel, teachers attended train the
trainer sessions on project management, translation software and quality control. The final
OTCT meeting took place on 17 November 2016 back to back with a Translating Europe
Workshop on graduates employability (see section 2 a) below).

2. EMT-DGT COOPERATION
a) Translating Europe
The idea of this initiative is to engage with various stakeholders in the translation sector and
to create a community of interest, with a view to giving visibility to the world of translation,
sharing good practice, developing common projects, and promoting a diversified and
sustainable market for professional translators in Europe. To this end, DGT organises a yearly
event in Brussels the Translating Europe Forum - and several "Translating Europe
Workshops" in various EU countries.

Translating Europe Forum

The main theme of the #TranslatingEurope Forum 2016 was translation tools and
technologies. During 16 sessions and hands-on workshops, 54 speakers from the translation
industry, EU and national institutions, the academia and the IT sector addressed the topic
from different perspectives, highlighting the needs and priorities of all actors of the translation
world. With 17 active contributors either as speakers or as moderators the EMT universities
were well represented in the various panels.

In the tradition of the Translating Europe Forum special attention was given to involve young
translators and translation students in the discussion. The forum was attended by 54 students
and graduates from EMT Universities, whose participation was financially supported by
DGT. Also building on the theme of the 2015 Translating Europe Forum "All about Youth", a
special, closed-door session for EMT students and DGT trainees was organised at the end of
the first day, when the Director-General engaged in a lively discussion on expectations,
education and the future of the profession. The conference was a huge success and was the
subject of much activity on Twitter and other social media.1

Translating Europe Workshops

Translating Europe Workshops contribute at national level to the general aim of exploring and
facilitating synergies among translation stakeholders. 35 workshops were organised in 2016,
mainly by DGT field officers in the Commission Representations in the Member States. EMT
universities played a major part in 17 of them either as initiator or as partners in the
organisation:

1 For full conference coverage including downloads of presentations, see:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/events/translatingeurope_en

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 TranslationQ (EvaluationQ & RevisionQ): Automated Translation Process with
Real-time Feedback & Evaluation/Revision with Preselected Items Evaluation (PIE)
Method (5 February 2016; KU Leuven, Belgium)
This workshop was held at the Commission conference rooms in the Charlemagne
building. The main aim was to present the results of KU Leuven's latest research into a
translation revision and evaluation tool to an expert audience of translators from the
public and the private sector, university teachers and translator associations. The event
was attended by more than 80 participants, including university teachers, staff from
DGT (translators and IT) and other EU institutions, translation agencies and translators
from Belgian ministries as well as several online participants using the web-streaming.
After a presentation of the tool and the underlying PIE method participants had the
opportunity to test the application in a hands-on workshop. Judging from the feedback
and the questions received after the event, the features of the tool are not only
interesting for the evaluation of translation tests in the university setting but could also
be usefully applied in recruitment exams, freelance evaluations etc.
More detailed information can be obtained from Hendrik Kockaert at KU Leuven:
hendrik.kockaert@kuleuven.be .

E-learning and employability (12 February 2016, University of Portsmouth, UK)

The workshop was initiated by Portsmouth University, one of the first UK universities
to set up a distance-learning MA Translation course and co-organised with Jaume I
University in Spain. The event was held at the Europe House in London to enable as
many stakeholders as possible to attend. These included academics, prospective
students, other members of the EMT network, government organisations, as well as
professional translation organisations. The main objectives were:
to examine how distance-learning could be used as a medium for offering
Translation Masters courses
to identify existing HE centres that offer online/distance learning programmes
to offer guidance and advice to universities who teach on the traditional campus
environment
to share good practices and analyse current e-learning tools and resources
to link tools and resources with learning and teaching aims
to raise awareness of the benefits of these courses in terms of employability.
For more detailed information please contact Begoa Cspedes Rodriguez, Portsmouth
University: Begona.rodriguez@port.ac.uk.
Quality Work Placements for Translation Students Expectations and Practices (18
March 2016, Brussels)
This was a joint workshop between EMT and LIND as a follow-up for the Work
Placement Agreements signed between EMT, EUATC and GALA some months earlier.
The work placement workshop was organised back-to-back to the EMT network
meeting in March, with additional participation for the translation industry, professional
organisations and other bodies involved in work placements, adding up to around 120
participants. The main conclusions of the workshop were:

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 Quality plays an essential role in work placements. It should be monitored with
measurable quality criteria described in the quality framework annexed to the Work
Placement Agreements.

The diversity of placement tasks will contribute to better understanding of the

profession and enabling more educated choices when opting (or opting out) for the
future career.
Participants agreed to extend the presented pilot project2 between the EMT member
programme of Turku University, tool provider XTRF and language service provider
text&form to other universities, companies and topics. They would organise a call for
expression of interest and present lessons learned in a set of guidelines to avoid double
work and to attract new participants.
For more information about the pilot project contact Leena Salmi from Turku
University: leenie@utu.fi
Professionalizing the translation profession in Greece and Cyprus (7 April 2016,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
This regional and cross-border workshop was co-organised by the DGT Field Offices
of Athens and Cyprus and the EMT programme of the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki. It dealt with two major issues worrying professional translators in
Greece and Cyprus, namely, a) the recognition of their professional qualifications and
their profession in general and b) claim of payment of Intellectual Property Rights for
their translations.
If you are interested in more detailed information about the workshop, please contact:
DGT-Athens@ec.europa.eu or DGT-Nicosia@ec.europa.eu.

Translators' and interpreters' annual spring conference (7-8 April 2016, ELTE
University, Budapest, Hungary)
The annual conference of translators and interpreters in Hungary has been organised
since 1997. In 2016 the EMT member university ELTE was a co-organiser. The
programme of the conference included many parallel sessions and presentations
including from EMT representatives.

More detailed information about individual sessions and their outcomes can be
obtained from DGT-Budapest@ec.europa.eu.

Workshop on the implementation of the 2010/64/EU directive on the right to

translation and interpretation in Courts, 8 April 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece
This regional and cross-border workshop was organised at the initiative of the DGT
Field Offices in Athens and Nicosia in collaboration with the Joint Postgraduate
Studies programme Conference Interpreting and Translation of the Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki. It dealt with the challenges linked to the implementation of
the Directive (both Greece and Cyprus have transposed the Directive in their national
legislation) and the possibilities offered for the translation and interpreting professions
2
Bringing company to classroom The case of project management training

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 in this highly demanding sector. More specifically, the Workshop dealt with the
present situation of translation and interpretation in Greek-speaking courts as well as
with the issue of translation and interpretation for migrants.
More information about the problems identified and proposed solutions can be
obtained from DGT-Athens@ec.europa.eu or DGT-Nicosia@ec.europa.eu.

General Assembly of the French Translation Programme Association - University of

Brest (UBO) 8 - 9April 2016
This workshop was organised back-to-back with the annual meeting of the French
Association of Master's degrees in Translation (www.affumt.fr), which comprises 17
professionally-oriented Master's degree programmes, including the French EMT
members. The TE workshop, focusing on national and European cooperation and on
the place of translation technologies in translator training, academic research and
current professional practices, was attended by the programme directors, visiting
academics from Spain and Italy, the chairman of the French Association of Translators
(SFT) and a member of the French National Research Centre (CNRS) specialising in
Information technology. The DGT and EMT team were represented by Josep Bonet.
For more detailed information please contact DGT-Paris@ec.europa.eu.

Forum on Quality in Legal Translation, Warsaw (UW) 6 June 2016

The workshop was organised by the EC Field Office in Poland and by the Institute of
Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, as an academic partner.
The forum explored the topic of quality in legal translation through three perspectives:
the academic perspective, the market perspective and the training perspective. The
keynote speakers included Fernando Prieto Ramos from Geneva and Hendrik
J. Kockaert from KU Leuven. The forum explored quality in legal translation from the
academic, market and the training perspective, attempting to map factors which
contribute to the quality. The speakers included representatives of the DGT, the Polish
Association of Translation Agencies (PSBT), the Polish Society of Sworn and
Specialized Translators (TEPIS), the Association of Polish Translators and Interpreters
(STP), the Polish Normalisation Committee, translation agencies and translator
training schools. Conference website with abstracts and presentations:
http://translatingeurope.blog.ils.uw.edu.pl/. For more detailed information please
contact DGT-Warsaw@ec.europa.eu.

9 September 2016, London, Collaboration between Professional Associations and

University Programmes
This regional workshop was initiated by the EMT programmes of the UK and Ireland,
with local organization by the University of Manchester and the European
Commission Representation in the UK. The event was held at Europe House, London.
The morning session provided an opportunity for representatives of the EMT
programmes to exchange best practices and discuss trends affecting their programmes.
The afternoon session was open to all and attracted a diverse audience of university
staff, students, freelance translators, and representatives of LSPs and translator
associations. Current and potential forms of collaboration between professional
associations and universities were discussed through presentations and Q&A sessions
led by heads of the Chartered Institute of Linguists and the Institute of Translation and

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 Interpreting. The workshop concluded with a round table combining professional
association and university representatives. For more detailed information, please
contact maeve.olohan@manchester.ac.uk.

Translation Quality Assessment : the past and present (10 October 2016, Vilnius
University, Lithuania)
The workshop was co-organised by the Lithuanian Language Department of DGT,
including the DGT Field Officer in Vilnius, and the Department of Translation and
Interpretation Studies of Vilnius University. The objective was to bring together
university teachers, students, translation professionals, translation agencies,
researchers, language professionals and public authorities in order to discuss
translation quality requirements as well as needs and expectations of clients, how these
affect training of students and what challenges are faced by universities. A secondary
aim was to share best practices in Lithuania and abroad. The workshop has contributed
to increasing awareness of the approaches to translation quality, ways to ensure it, new
developments in the world and needs of the labour market and has helped to
strengthen relations between stakeholders
For more detailed information please contact DGT-Vilnius@ec.europa.eu.

Working together from day 1: strengthening the translation market in Croatia by

building synergies and EMT competencies (20 October 2016, Zagreb, Croatia)
The objective of this workshop initiated by the DGT Field Office in Zagreb was to
clarify and facilitate the EMT application process for Croatian universities, raise
awareness of EMT among other translation stakeholders (especially employers),
encourage cooperation between universities, employers and translation associations
(especially in the area of student placements), and provide networking opportunities
between Croatian universities and experienced EMT members. Several representatives
of EMT member programmes shared their experiences regarding curriculum design
according to EMT standards, EMT activities and spin-off projects.
More information about the individual presentations can be obtained from DGT-
Zagreb@ec.europa.eu.

The new translator: current trends and future perspectives, 25 October 2016, IULM
University, Milan, Italy)
The workshop was organised by IULM University in collaboration with DGT field
officer in Rome. It was supported by IULM comparative studies, the School for
Interpreters and Translators Carlo Bo of Milan, the network of young entrepreneurs
for culture Culturit, the Italian association of translators and interpreters AITI,
UNESCO Cultural and Comparative Studies on Imaginary of IULM University and
the association of language services providers Unilingue. The workshop focussed on
the most recent market trends, the training of translators and translation tools. It aimed
in particular at stimulating debate between professors, researchers, institutions and
stakeholders on the use of CAT tools and machine translation and new translator's
skills.

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 The conference recordings are available on IULM's website. For more information
contact DGT-Rome@ec.europa.eu.
KERNEL a workshop on scientific translation and writing,7-8 November 2016,
Chartres, France - Universit de Bretagne Occidentale

The workshop was co-organised by the DGT Field Office in Paris, the Universit de
Bretagne Occidentale (UBO) and the "Institut de l'Information Scientifique et
Technique" (INIST), The general objective of the workshop was to take stock of the
current state of scientific translation and writing and to explore different ways towards
synergies and collaboration between science and research on the one hand and
language and translation on the other in particular as regards training in scientific
translation and writing. As a result a core group of participants created a discussion
forum to start a regular exchange about relevant training initiatives and other topics
that would help to give more visibility to this particular field of translation. More
information about the workshop can be obtained from jean-yves.ledisez@univ-brest.fr.

If you are interested in joining the discussion forum (working languages are EN and
FR) send an e-mail to sympa@inist.fr with "sub kernel-ateliers" in the subject line.
You will get access to the forum and be invited to present yourself and explain your
motivation for participation in the forum.

Specialisation in translator training and continuing professional development:

challenges and choices (11 November 2016, University of Salamanca, Spain)
The event consisted of a one-day seminar dedicated to the reflection, exchange of
good practice and joint collaboration proposals of ways around the topic of
specialisation in translator training and continuing professional development. Since
the translation market requires specialised translators with both expert knowledge in
different fields and specific (technological, interpersonal, professional, etc.) skills, the
workshop objective was to reflect on the challenges and choices faced by students,
trainers, practitioners and employers in relation to specialisation, as well as on the
pathways to achieve specialisation in our global, digital and multicultural era in order
to improve translator employability. The workshop built upon the results of the former
OPTIMALE project.
For more information contact the new representative of Salamanca University in the
EMT network: Jorge Snchez Iglesias jsi@usal.es.

International Intensive Translation Sessions: one step further towards student's

employability? (17-18 November 2016, Universit de Rennes, France)
This workshop was co-organised by the DGT Field Office in Paris and the University
of Rennes. It actually combined the final conference of the OTCT project coordinated
by Rennes (see section f) below), with a follow-up debate on the factors that help
improve the employability of translation graduates. Participants were professors,
students, representatives of translator employers and associations. All agreed that
initiatives where students are put in real working situations are the best way to help
improving the employability of translation graduates. For more information contact
katell.morin-hernandez@univ-rennes2.fr.

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 Czech-Polish Conference on Quality Aspects in Institutional Translation (25
November 2016, Charles University of Prague)
The conference Quality Aspects in Institutional Translation in Prague was a follow-
up event to the Polish-Czech conference on Points of View on Translators
Competence and Translation Quality which was held in Cracow, Poland, in
November 2015. Main organiser of the Prague conference was the Institute of
Translation Studies, Charles University in Prague (member of EMT). Since the
conference was an example of Czech-Polish cooperation in this area, DGT Field
Offices in Prague and Warsaw were substantially involved in preparation, promotion
and implementation of this Translating Europe Workshop.
While conference in Cracow focused on a broad array of related topics, Prague event
developed a specific line of inquiry - Institutional Translation. It dealt with the topic in
detail and focused on the quality aspects in various national and international
institutions, including in the context of the EU ones.
For more information: http://qait.ff.cuni.cz/

Translating Europe Workshop: Forum on New Translation Technologies: How to

Link Productivity and Quality, Warsaw (UW), December 12th 2016
The workshop was organised by the EC Field Office in Poland and by the Institute of
Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw as an academic partner and by TM-Global
as an industry partner. The workshop focused on the theme of new translation
technologies and explored how new technologies and translation tools such as
machine translation, CAT tools, terminology management systems, voice recognition
tools increase productivity and affect quality of translation. The workshop focused
on translation analytics, technology and its sociological aspects, links between
productivity and quality, and innovation and translation. Finally, the workshop
identified recent trends affecting the profession of translators. Conference website
with abstracts and presentations: http://translatingeurope.blog.ils.uw.edu.pl/tew/

b) Visiting Translator Scheme (VTS)

DGT translators visited six EMT member universities and four candidate universities under
the VTS 2016. Eight non-EMT universities were visited with a view to promoting EMT and
improving domain competence by visiting other faculties than translation. Not all requests
from EMT universities could be satisfied.

The visits to two more EMT member universities in Finland were postponed to January 2017.
All in all the feedback was positive and confirmed that VTS is an enriching experience both
for the universities and the translators.

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EMT Member Universities EMT Candidates Other Universities

University of Geneva Masaryk University Helsinki University

Dublin City University University of Tartu Trinity College

University of Latvia Schumen University Queen's University

Riga Technical University University of Malta University of Ulster

Ventspils University College Saint Mary's College

Zentrum fr Ionad an Acadaimh

Translationswissenschaft at
Vienna University Instituto Politcnico do Porto

Faculty of mechanical engineering

at the University of Ljubljana

c) EMT trainees in DGT

In 2016 DGT hosted two types of trainees: the trainees that fall within the standard
Commission traineeship scheme of 4 months, and trainees on a shorter work placement
scheme (maximum 4 weeks, unpaid).

In 2016 there were 89 trainees in DGT in the first category. Nine of these trainees came from
EMT programmes. In the short term work placement category DGT hosted 77 trainees from
50 EMT Universities.

d) EMT universities and MT@EC

Currently, MT@EC , the European Commission's machine translation service, is accessed by
users from 38 EMT Universities from 15 EU Member States and Switzerland (state of play:
October 2016). They can use MT@EC on request and at no cost for teaching and research
purposes. In return, DGT hopes to receive outlines of, and feedback from, projects using
MT@EC. 61 staff members, and through them, any of their students that they allow, are
registered users. Access will continue to be granted for the duration of the current EMT
Network, i.e., until June 2019.

e) DGT training activities with EMT

DGT Academy

DGT Academy is DGT's new initiative to support the continuing professional development of
its translating staff: The general purpose of DGT Academy is to raise the level of thematic
knowledge of generalist translators in the main domains of specialisation in DGT (law,

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economics and finance, science and technology) by a series of full-day classroom-based
courses at MA level. EMT members have been encouraged to cooperate with DGT on this
scheme.

The first EMT programme to deliver a DGT Academy course was the Master TST
(Traductions Scientifiques et Techniques) of Universit Haute Alsace in Mulhouse, France:
from 23 to 27 May 2016 three professors gave classes on Chemistry, Technology (electronics)
and Ecology/Geology. Despite the very dense programme all participants were extremely
satisfied so that DGT and the person responsible for the Master TST already decided to
organise a follow-up course in 2017.

EMT members wishing to cooperate on DGT Academy should contact DGT-

EMT@ec.europa.eu.
For more details about the DGT Academy experience from a university's point of view, please
contact: Enrico Monti, director of the Master TST in Mulhouse: enrico.monti@uha.fr

Other training courses

In 2016 EMT programmes also became more actively involved in other training activities for
DGT staff:

24 February 2016, Dr Ana Frankenberg-Garcia, University of Surrey, Title of the

training event: In search of specialised terminology and phraseology with the help of
corpora - a hands-on workshop for DGT translators explaining how to translate in a
domain where they are not (yet) experts.
30 May 2016, Darja Fier, University of Ljubljana, Title of the training event: Post
Editing Machine Translation (PEMT) in Theory in Practise. The aim of the training
was to allow translators to be become more familiar with the techniques to make
strategic and linguistic decisions while post-editing machine translations in their daily
work. This general presentation was followed by a hand-on workshop for Slovene
translators who applied the techniques on real-life DGT documents translated by using
MT@EC output.
9 June 2016, Rudy Loock, Universit de Lille 3, Title of the event: Training on the use
of corpora. The training was divided in two parts, first a general presentation of corpus
tools to make participants aware of their presence within certain tools, their
accessibility and their usefulness according to the stage of the translation project (from
understanding of the source text to post edition), followed by a hands-on workshop
where the participants learned how to create and use specialized corpora to solve
concrete translation problems.
27 June 2016, Fernando Prieto Ramos, University of Geneva, Title of the training
event: Legal translation decision-making and competence - Role and communicative
parameters of institutional legal translation. The aim of this lecture was to contribute
to building competence in the field of legal translation, both at conceptual and
practical level; to enhance legal translation methodological competence, in particular
with respect to legal terminology and to increase awareness of the legal
communicative dimension of legal translation process and competence.
17 November and 24 November 2016, Marie-Aude Lefer, Universit Catholique de
Louvain, Title of the training event: SketchEngine a hands-on introduction. A
workshop for creating corpora and concordance files and for performing collocation
queries.

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And last but not least, thanks to the contacts established by Prof Nijole Maskaliuniene, two
language teachers from Vilnius Universities were hired for intensive Lithuanian language
courses for DGT staff. The courses were given in three modules (a total of 180 hours) in
October, November and December 2016. The participants were very satisfied with the quality
of the course.

Building on these very positive experiences DGT hopes to extend this cooperation to more
EMT programmes and topics in the future.

f) The EMT secretariat in DGT

As before, the EMT team in DGT organised and took an active part in the Board and Network
meetings and served as the EMT secretariat. The team continued to communicate and
exchange information with the network through the EMT platform on Yammer and the EMT
Wiki.3 The EMT Network on Yammer virtually replaced traditional email in the
communication between the members and the DGT team, and members between each other.
The use of the Yammer social media platform All about Translation as communication tool
between actors of the translation community considerably increased and simplified the
exchange of information and promotion of translation-related events.

3. EXTERNAL MATTERS
a) Relations with the LIND Board
The LIND Board is the preferred partner of the EMT Board when it comes to cooperation
with the language industry on the European level. As in the past years both boards met several
times in 2016 to discuss topics of mutual interest. The cooperation on surveys is a very
concrete outcome of these discussions: To avoid any duplication of efforts the industry
representatives in the LIND-Web Board offered to include the planned surveys of the EMT
working groups into their regular surveys. The first survey with questions from the EMT was
the Survey: Expectations and Concerns of the European Language Industry (2016).

The Translating Europe Workshop of March 2016 on Quality Work Placements for
Translation Students is another concrete example for the good LIND-EMT Board
cooperation. Both sides agreed in a meeting at the margins of TEF to extend the common
projects presented at the March TE workshop (see 2 a) above) to more universities and
companies from the language industry.

Involving LIND in a more structured way in the EMT governance was one of the ideas
explored when discussing plans for a sustainable future for the EMT. However, in the joint
meeting in October both Boards agreed to maintain the EMT as an academic network and not
to institutionalise the industry involvement. The partners of the language industry would
prefer to cooperate punctually on concrete projects. The main ideas proposed for such projects
were: increased cooperation on traineeships, professionalising workshops at universities, joint
teaching modules (including webinars), joint surveys and joint research projects.

3 https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/wikis/display/EMT/EMT+WIKI+Home.

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b) PAMCIT
At the end of 2015 a financing agreement was signed between the EU and the UN Office in
Nairobi to support the Pan-African consortium of Master programmes in Conference
Interpreting and Translation (PAMCIT). The agreement provides among other things the
possibility of training-for-trainers seminars in translation. Following a request by the
PAMCIT coordinator the EMT team of DGT published a call for expression of interest in
June 2016 encouraging EMT professors to deliver such seminars. In November 2016 the
PAMCIT coordinator in Nairobi eventually selected two candidates from the 13 applications
received to give one week training-for-trainers in Ghana in January 2017.

At least one more training for trainers in translation is foreseen in the 3,5 years duration of the
agreement.

CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK

EMT members successfully implemented their priorities for 2016. The discussions about the
future of EMT led to increasing awareness about the added value of the network and new
objectives to fix for the future. While DGT will remain committed to EMT, the EMT network
members will continue to work on strengthening the networks internal cohesion with a view
to creating more ownership and to shaping the network more to the universities' needs.
Network members also committed to work on the visibility of the EMT label to increase the
employers' awareness of EMT and to attract more students to EMT programmes. In line with
the overarching EU objective to invest in the future of the young generation, one of the main
EMT priorities for the coming years will be to put the students in the centre of the network
activities.

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