During the welcome ceremony, Prof. Roszko extended his warmest wishes to His Excellency Ambassador Valdemaras Sarapinas for the Lithuanian nation. In words addressed directly to the diplomat – delivered in Lithuanian – he particularly emphasized Lithuania’s modern and multifaceted development, as well as its sovereignty and independence, which form the foundation of the country’s strong position on the international stage. He also expressed hope for the continued, dynamic strengthening of Polish–Lithuanian relations and highlighted the profound significance of Lithuania’s historical heritage in building a shared regional identity.
The meeting also provided an excellent opportunity to express gratitude for the invaluable support provided to the Institute of Slavic Studies PAS by the Lithuanian diplomatic mission. The Embassy demonstrated its solidarity with our Institute by issuing a letter of support for the DARIAH.NEC project, which serves as a significant impetus for the development of international research initiatives conducted at the Institute of Slavic Studies PAS.
Prof. Roman Roszko extends official congratulations to the Lithuanian nation, presented to the Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania, Valdemaras Sarapinas. Photo: private archive.Prof. Roman Roszko (first from the right) and his wife, prof. Danuta Roszko (first from the left), pictured with H.E. Ambassador Valdemaras Sarapinas. Photo: private archive.
On June 22–23, 2026, the 16th edition of the workshop titled “CLARIN in Research Practice” took place at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce. The event was organized by the CLARIN-PL Language Technology Center (based at Wrocław University of Science and Technology) in cooperation with the Institute of Literary Studies and Linguistics at Jan Kochanowski University, as well as CLARIN-PL consortium partners: the Institute of Computer Science PAS, the Institute of Slavic Studies PAS, the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, the University of Łódź, and the University of Wrocław. The event drew significant interest from the scientific community, with approximately 150 participants from across the country attending the panels and practical sessions.
Researchers from the Institute of Slavic Studies PAS (IS PAN) actively participated in the workshop program, presenting research results conducted in collaboration with partners from other academic centres. The substantive presentations were delivered by researchers affiliated with our Institute and the University of Warsaw, all of which align with broader activities within the CLARIN-PL infrastructure.
Presentations by the IS PAS Semantics and Computational Linguistics Team
One of the main highlights of the program was a series of presentations concerning work with low-resource languages (languages with limited digital representation).
A team consisting of Danuta Roszko (UW), Roman Roszko (IS PAN), and Piotr Szatkowski (IS PAN) presented a methodology for creating datasets for the Masurian reading material. This work is closely linked to the ongoing CLARIN-PL-BIZ-Bis (FENG) project, which is a consortium undertaking. The presentation addressed the technical aspects of building data processing pipelines necessary for preparing Masurian texts for the training, evaluation, and testing of Large Language Models (LLMs).
Another presentation, delivered by a team comprising Danuta Roszko (UW), Roman Roszko (IS PAN), and Valéry TrânThiên (IS PAN), focused on machine translation testing within language groups with limited digital resources (including Slavic and Baltic languages). The speakers placed the issues of contemporary AI models within a broader historical and theoretical context, referencing classic works of translation theory. They noted that even in the age of artificial intelligence, the principles formulated by Étienne Dolet in 1540 in La Manière de Bien Traduire d’une Langue en Aultre remain relevant. His five rules – ranging from a perfect understanding of the author’s intention to avoiding literal “word-for-word” translation – serve as a crucial reference point for assessing the quality of today’s machine-generated translations.
As a striking example of how a translation error can impact the development of science, the team cited the issue raised by Daniel Hoek (2023) in the article Forced Changes Only: A New Take on the Law of Inertia. Linguistic analysis revealed that an imprecise English translation of the Latin lexeme quatenus, performed by Andrew Motte in 1729 in his translation of Newton’s Principia, led to a fundamental misunderstanding of Newton’s First Law of Motion. This seemingly minor linguistic error distorted the interpretation of a scientific principle for nearly three centuries, serving as an extremely important warning for contemporary researchers testing the precision and semantic vigilance of machine translation models.
Expert Consultations
A key element of the IS PAS researchers’ presence at the workshop was the opportunity to provide direct support to participants. Prof. Roman Roszko (IS PAS) conducted individual and group expert consultations, assisting researchers in implementing modern technologies into their daily scientific work. The consultation topics included:
the use of artificial intelligence in text translation processes,
the analysis of multilingual manuscripts using AI tools,
advanced tagging and annotation of linguistic resources.
The participation of our researchers among such a large group of attendees confirms the growing role of the Institute of Slavic Studies PAS in projects that bridge traditional humanities with modern natural language processing (NLP) technologies.
Prof. Roman Roszko in front of the Faculty of Humanities at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce. Photo: private archive.Prof. Roman Roszko delivering a paper. Photo: private archive.Prof. Roman Roszko delivering a paper. Photo: private archive.Prof. Danuta Roszko delivering a paper. Photo: private archive.Prof. Roman Roszko delivering a paper. Photo: private archive.
We are pleased to announce that Dr Olha Tkachenko’s project, “Decolonization 2:0: digital
capitalism and epistemic mobilization in Ukrainian YouTube in 2021-2025,” has received
funding under the SONATA programme of the National Science Centre (NCN).
The project explores the role of YouTube as a key space for epistemic mobilization and
decolonial transformation in Ukraine between 2021 and 2025. It addresses an important
research gap concerning the significance of digital media in decolonization processes, which have so far been studied primarily from historical, cultural, and political perspectives.
Dr Olha Tkachenko will examine how Ukrainian content creators use YouTube to challenge imperial narratives, dismantle Russian colonial myths, and promote Ukrainian culture and history. The project will analyze both the creators and the content they produce, as well as audience responses, which reflect broader processes of national identity formation and cognitive change within Ukrainian society.
On April 16–17, 2026, the international scientific conference entitled “Linguistic Variation in the Contemporary Sociocultural Context” took place in Vilnius. The event served as a platform for the exchange of ideas among linguists and sociologists; however, from the perspective of contemporary technological challenges, two presentations by our researchers gained particular significance. These were the only papers during the entire event that directly addressed the issue of low-resource languages.
Technological challenges: Protecting against “linguistic homogenization”
A research team consisting of Prof. IS PAN Roman Roszko (ISS PAS), Dr hab. Danuta Roszko (UV), and Dr Piotr Szatkowski (ISS PAS) presented the results of their work on constructing specialized corpora for the Masurian ethnolect and the Lithuanian Puńsk dialect in Poland.
In the era of the rapid expansion of Large Language Models (LLMs), the researchers highlighted the phenomenon of “linguistic homogenisation”. The dominance of high-resource languages in AI training sets causes the specific structures of smaller varieties to be displaced by calques and simplifications.
Key aspects of the project include:
Resource normalisation challenges and the creation of proper processing pipelines Due to the lack of standardized orthography in dialectal texts, it was necessary to develop advanced processing pipelines. These include tasks such as cleaning “orthographic noise” and performing full substantive correction.
CLARIN-PL and CLARIN-PL-BIZ-Bis infrastructure The work is being carried out within the extended CLARIN-PL infrastructure, which allows for data preparation in interoperable standards (TMX, TSV, JSON), ready for integration with systems such as “KonText”.
Benchmarking The project aims to create closed test sets that will allow for an objective assessment of how contemporary AI models perform in understanding and generating texts in these specific linguistic varieties.
A Sociolinguistic Perspective: Can School Save a Language?
Complementing the technological view of multilingualism was an analysis by MA Andrzej Żak (ISS PAS) regarding the status of the Kashubian language. The researcher employed the term “collateral language” – a variety whose linguistic status has been historically contested and which, despite legal recognition, currently struggles with revitalization challenges.
The main findings of the study are:
The Educational Paradox Despite 30 years of teaching Kashubian in schools and its status as the only regional language in Poland, statistics indicate a decline in the number of active users.
Extra-systemic Barriers An analysis of sociolinguistic interviews revealed that key obstacles are psychological and ideological factors, such as low social prestige of the language and a deeply rooted sense of shame among older generations.
Future Strategy The study demonstrates that institutionalization alone (schools, government offices) is insufficient. For a language to survive, a change in social attitudes and the construction of a new, positive linguistic identity are essential.
Andrzej Żak’s participation was funded by the National Science Centre (NCN) SONATA BIS grant awarded to Prof. Nicole Dołowy: “ Linguistic diversity in Poland: collateral languages, language-oriented activities and conceptualization of collective identity” (2020/38/E/HS2/00006).
Summary: The role of CLARIN-PL and CLARIN-PL-BIZ-Bis projects in heritage protection
These presentations clearly demonstrated that protecting smaller linguistic varieties in the 21st century must follow a dual track. On one hand, advanced linguistic engineering – implemented through projects such as CLARIN-PL-BIZ-Bis – is essential to bring these languages into the digital sphere. On the other hand, sociolinguistic reflection is necessary to understand the human context of their use.
The fact that the topic of low-resource languages in Vilnius was raised almost exclusively by our representatives underscores the leading role of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IS PAN) and the CLARIN-PL and CLARIN-PL-BIZ-Bis consortia in defining the directions of modern Digital Humanities. Without the active creation of data resources, smaller ethnolects are at risk of digital exclusion and fading into non-existence in a world governed by algorithms.
The project “CLARIN – Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure” is co-funded by the European Union under the European Funds for Smart Economy 2021–2027 programme. Consortium members: Wrocław University of Science and Technology (leader), Institute of Computer Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, University of Lodz, University of Wrocław.
Prof. Roman Roszko delivering his presentation. Photo: private archive.Andrzej Żak delivering his presentation. Photo: private archive.
We are pleased to announce the release of 11 new PLLuM models. Their primary advantage lies in their exceptional proficiency in the Polish language – including official/administrative styles – as well as a deep understanding of native cultural, historical, and legal contexts. These models are designed to support public administration, businesses, and individual users. Crucially, they have been released under open licenses that are fully compliant with the requirements of the EU AI Act.
The Specificity of the New PLLuM Models
The new PLLuM variants can significantly enhance the efficiency of public administration. They are capable of generating texts in over 20 types of official documents, supporting office and operational tasks, interpreting the context of administrative procedures, simplifying complex legal language, and working with standardized legal document templates.
Based on an analysis of real user interactions with PLLuM Chat, we have also developed mechanisms that enable the generation of safer and more precise responses.
Four Model Sizes
The new model family includes four sizes: refreshed versions of 8B, 12B, and 70B, along with a brand-new 4B category:
4B – The smallest and fastest models with low computational requirements, ideal for task-specific fine-tuning.
8B and 12B – Providing an excellent balance between speed and quality; recommended for production deployments, such as serving as the engine for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems.
70B – The largest and most advanced model, designed to handle complex tasks effectively without the need for additional fine-tuning.
All versions are available under open licenses with full documentation compliant with the AI Act, including detailed descriptions of the models, data sources, training methods, and quality evaluation metrics.
Model Training
The models were developed in 2025 commissioned by the Ministry of Digital Affairs as part of the HIVE AI project. The project was implemented by a consortium consisting of: NASK PBI (leader), ACK Cyfronet AGH, Centre for Information Technology (COI), Institute of Computer Science PAS, Institute of Slavic Studies PAS, OPI PIB, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, and the University of Łódź.
The training process was based on a new, rich, and diverse corpus of text materials. The data was collected legally through licensing agreements, public domain sources, and Creative Commons resources.
The Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (ISS PAS) invites expressions of interest from postdoctoral researchers who wish to apply for the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA PF, Horizon Europe) with ISS PAS as their host institution.
We are looking for talented and ambitious scholars from around the world who are eager to conduct cutting-edge research in a stimulating academic environment in the heart of Warsaw, Poland.
The Institute of Slavic Studies PAS is a leading research institution in Central and Eastern Europe with over 70 years of scholarly tradition. We conduct interdisciplinary studies on Slavic languages, cultures, histories, literatures, societies, and identities. We offer a dynamic and internationally engaged research community, access to extensive library and archival resources. We hold the prestigious HR Excellence in Research award, recognizing our commitment to providing a supportive and transparent research environment for researchers at all stages of their careers.
What We Offer
Support in preparing and submitting your MSCA PF application (including internal review and mentoring)
A stimulating research environment within a multidisciplinary team of experts
Full access to ISS PAS’s infrastructure, library, and academic network
Opportunities for publication, conference participation, and career development
Office space and administrative support during the fellowship
Assistance with relocation and integration in Warsaw
Who Can Apply
We are seeking excellent researchers of any nationality who:
Hold a PhD degree at the time of the MSCA PF deadline (9 September 2026)
Have a maximum of 8 years of research experience after obtaining their PhD
Have not resided or carried out their main activity in Poland for more than 12 months in the 36 months prior to the call deadline
Propose a research project aligned with ISS PAS’s thematic areas
Visit our website to explore the list of potential supervisors (https://ispan.waw.pl/default/en/about-the-institute/departments/)
Preferred topics
History of Central Europe after World War II, forced migrations, landscape anthropology, and thing studies
Migration and refugee studies, critical border studies
Jewish/Holocaust Studies
Visual studies, new social movements, and new media studies
Timeline
Deadline for expression of interest at ISS PAS: 15 June 2026
MSCA PF call deadline (EU): 9 September 2026
Selected candidates will receive full support in preparing their MSCA PF application.
How to Apply
Please send the following documents (in one PDF file) to horyzont@ispan.edu.pl with the subject: MSCA PF – Expression of Interest – Your Name:
CV (max. 2 pages)
Short description of your research idea (max. 2 pages)
Brief statement explaining why you wish to work at ISS PAS
For more information about our research profile, visit: https://ispan.waw.pl/default/en
For more information about MSCA PF, visit: https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/postdoctoral-fellowships
We have extended our Call for Papers “Slavic Written Culture” until 15 May 2026. We encourage you to submit texts via the online journal platform of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Submissions in line with the general aims of Adeptus are also welcome.
During the V International Scientific and Practical Conference ‘Corpus Linguistics in Science and Education’, organised by the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University in Kyiv, the scientific community’s attention was focused on the plenary session delivered by Prof. Roman Roszko from the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (ISS PAS). The presentation served not only as the substantive foundation of the event but also as a clear signal that Polish computational linguistics is entering a new digital era.
The presentation, titled ‘Evolution of the Team of Semantics and Computational Linguistics of ISS PAS: From Corpus Resources to Polish Language Models’, was met with immense interest from over 150 participants attending the session.
Prof. Roszko provided an exceptionally clear and profound outline of the journey taken by the current Semantics and Corpus Linguistics Team. This history evolved from building fundamental monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual corpora towards advanced solutions in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Key Pillars of the Presentation
The core of the lecture focused on the Institute’s involvement in projects critical to Polish technological sovereignty, including PLLuM (Polish Large Language Model), HIVE AI, CLARIN-PL-BIZ-Bis, and DARIAH-HUB.
Prof. Roszko highlighted the unique role of ISS PAS in creating high-quality datasets, specifically:
Textual data for training, evaluation, and testing.
Organic instruction data, which enables models to better understand user intent.
Specialised programming data, essential for developing tools that support coding.
Another vital topic was the Institute’s role in verifying effective Text and Data Mining (TDM) reservations. In an era of mass AI model training, protecting resources and precisely managing data access has become a priority—a field in which ISS PAS serves as a leading expert.
Recognition from the Academic Community
The organisers from the Faculty of Foreign Philology at the Ukrainian State Dragomanov University expressed high praise for the contribution. In an official statement, they emphasised that Prof. Roszko’s speech was the ‘brightest highlight of the programme’, noting that the depth of the analytical and developmental work described, combined with the speaker’s high level of professionalism, set the tone for all subsequent scientific discussions.
‘This presentation caused a significant stir in the scientific community. We are impressed by the research depth and look forward to further fruitful cooperation within future scientific projects’, wrote the conference Organising Committee.
Prof. Roman Roszko’s appearance at the Kyiv conference confirmed that ISS PAS does more than just archive linguistic heritage; it actively shapes the future of computational linguistics, building bridges between traditional science and the technologies of tomorrow.
Presentation title slide. Photo: private archive.Participants during the conference. Photo: private archive.Prof. Roman Roszko during the presentation. Photo: private archive.Prof. Roman Roszko presenting the PLLuM model. Photo: private archive.
We are pleased to announce the publication of issue no. 57 (2025) of the journal “Sprawy Narodowościowe. Seria Nowa”. All texts are available in open access on the IS PAN journals platform.
The leading theme of this issue is decolonization: “Decolonizations: theories, practices, and discourses in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond”. The issue is edited by Dr. hab. Ewa Wróblewska-Trochimiuk and Dr. Olha Tkachenko from the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Liudmyla Pidkuimukha from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
The articles are available at: https://journals.ispan.edu.pl/index.php/sn/pl/.
This issue (concept and academic editing) was prepared as part of the project “Visual Narratives of Civil Society. The Modern Ukraine Project”, funded by the Foundation for Polish Science.
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