National consortium

Purpose and tasks

  • The Consortium organizes CLARIN-CH in Switzerland.
  • The Consortium is committed to the participation of Switzerland as an observer or full member of CLARIN ERIC.
  • The Consortium serves as a forum for the exchange of disciplines and research topics relevant to CLARIN, in particular linguistics and its research infrastructures.
  • The Consortium supports the activities of CLARIN in Switzerland.
  • It maintains the exchange with DARIAH and its national organization in Switzerland.

The Consortium Agreement 2025-2028 is the second agreement put in place by the consortium, stipulating the purpose of the CLARIN-CH Consortium, its functioning and the members’ responsibilities.

Members of the consortium

University of Zurich (UZH)

represented by Prof. Dr. Noah Bubenhofer from the German Seminar and the Linguistic Research Infrastructure LiRI

Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)

represented by Prof. Dr. Cerstin Mahlow from the Zurich School of Applied Linguistics

Swiss Academy of Human and Social Sciences (SAGW)

represented by Christian Weibel, Scientific Collaborator at the SAGW

University of Basel (UNIBAS)

represented by Prof. Dr. Martin Luginbühl from the Department of German Language and Litterature

University of Bern (UNIBE)

represented by Prof. Dr. Sandrine Zufferey from the Institute of French Language and Literature.

University of Geneva (UNIGE)

represented by Prof. Dr. Eric Haeberli from the Linguistics Department

University of Fribourg (UNIFR)

represented by Prof. Dr. Anita Thomas from the Department of Multilingualism and Foreign Languages Education

University of Lausanne (UNIL)

represented by Prof. Dr. Anita Auer from the English Department.

University of Neuchâtel (UNINE)

represented by Prof. Dr. Martin Hilpert from the Institute of English Linguistics.

Joining CLARIN-CH

Is your institution interested in joining CLARIN-CH? Do not hesitate to contact us for further information on the procedure, as well as benefits and obligations of becoming a member. 

Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI)

represented by Prof. Dr. Andrea Rocci from the Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics.

Becoming an associate member

Since 2025 it is possible to become associated member of CLARIN-CH, giving smaller institutions the opportunity to get involved.

Associate members of CLARIN-CH

The following institutions have joined CLARIN-CH as associate members:

SwissNLP

SwissNLP aims to promote Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computational Linguistic and Text Analytics in Switzerland.
represented by Simone Griesser, PhD from the Institute of Communication and Marketing (IKM) at HSLU

Lia Rumantscha

The Lia Rumantscha, established in 1919, is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the Romansh language and culture in Switzerland.
represented by Ignacio Perez Prat, responsible for the Digital Transformation at Lia Rumantscha

Learn more about the difference between full membership and associate members in the FAQ section below:

About CLARIN-CH membership

CLARIN-CH members gain access to a comprehensive digital infrastructure for language resources, including corpora, tools, web services, and knowledge centers, along with opportunities for collaboration in joint national and European projects. Full members receive additional benefits like voting rights (i.e. the ability to participate in strategy and policy development) and vouchers or reduced prices for LiRI services.

Benefits of consortium full members include:

Both full and associate members benefit from dimished costs for creation of resources and services by encouraging and facilitating reusability, as well as by cost-splitting with other members of the consortium.

To learn more about the benefits of a membership, please consult the Consortium Agreement (see section 5) and the CLARIN-CH Value Proposition.

  • Consortium full members may be higher education and research institutions, research institutes, libraries, and academies. Only Consortium full members have voting rights, they provide in-kind contributions and pay annual affiliation fees.

  • Consortium associate members are smaller entities, such as infrastructures, long-term projects or associations relevant for the area covered by CLARIN. Associate members are invited to the meetings of the Consortium, and they may take part in the organisation of the Consortium, nevertheless without voting rights. They provide in-kind contributions (e.g., data, services, infrastructure), and do not pay annual fees.

CLARIN-CH membership is only possible for institutions, not individuals. If your institution would like to join CLARIN-CH, the application procedure is as follows:

  1. Contact the CLARIN-CH Coordination Office.
  2. Submit an application to the CLARIN-CH Board.
  3. The Board decides on admission by simple majority vote.
  4. If accepted, sign the CLARIN-CH Consortium Agreement.