Key responsibilities

The main role of K-centres lies in providing both researchers, who build or use CLARIN, with cross-border access to information in specific areas of language research. As access points, the centres are either tied to a physical or virtual place and can be located within or outside of CLARIN ERIC member and observer countries. Similarly, they can be single-sited (i.e. a group of people in one physical location or institute) or distributed across multiple locations in one or more countries. The expertise within a centre may be focused on one specific topic such as language specific resources (e.g. Swiss German language technology) or covering a variety of topics with a common denominator such as a group of languages (e.g. Alemannic German).

Although the centres must not offer technical infrastructure or data services, all K-centres provide a mix of proactive and reactive services. The helpdesk of a K-centre responds to requests within two working days and may offer online courses, best practice documents and guidance in getting access to and using data and tools.