Celtic languages in European Higher Education: CRAMLAP - Celtic, Regional and Minority Languages Abroad Project

The Celtic, Regional and Minority Languages Abroad
Project (CRAMLAP) is funded by the European Commission
to research the provision and pedagogy of regional
and minority languages outside their national borders in
Europe. The teaching of Celtic languages across Europe
was the focus in year one (2003-2004). This article summarizes
the qualitative data received in response to
questionnaires sent to institutions across Europe offering
Celtic Studies. Responses indicated that Celtic Studies
are quite widely available across Europe. The languages
are taught in comparative linguistics, linguistics and English
departments, with few dedicated Celtic departments
or sections outside the Celtic countries. Irish is supported
abroad by Irish government grant aid which will
become more widely available in the immediate future.
Many of the teachers have considerable experience, but
limited pedagogic training. The lack of suitable teaching
resources is the most commonly expressed concern.

Research activities in the MaRINET project: keeping the European marine energy development facilities at world class level

The MaRINET project aims to build a synergy in the European marine renewable energy development infrastructure network, involving a total of 28 partners across the union. Its scope extends from small to large scale testing, in both tank and field. The main activities of the project are to standardize test procedures, to provide centralized free access for European technology developers, and to innovate for improving test infrastructures and techniques.
This paper presents the work carried in this last part, which focuses on research objectives identified to be current challenges for industrial development. They are distributed in 6 topics. On the one hand are issues that concern directly one of the 3 types of energy scoped in the project: wave, tidal, and offshore wind energy. Two examples are the real time estimation of incident waves, and the measurement of turbulence in tidal flows. On the other hand, collaborative effort is drawn on aspects that are common to those technologies: electrical components, environmental monitoring, and dedicated moorings.