MultiMind

01.04.2018 bis 31.03.2022

The aim of the project ‘MultiMind’ is to establish an international, multidisciplinary and multisectorial training network on multilingualism. Given the current migration and refugee crisis in Europe, there is an urgent need to provide an in depth investigation of multilingualism from a multidisciplinary perspective that will bridge the gap between fundamental and applied research and will addresses societal challenges within the education and health sector as well as challenges related to the education of migrants and refugees in Europe. MultiMind addresses the benefits and challenges of multilingualism through an innovative research programme that combines fundamental and applied research across disciplines in a range of different social and educational settings. It investigates the influence of multilingualism on language learning, cognition, creativity, and decision making, on brain function and structure, and its role as a reserve in atypical populations using a combination of cutting edge research methodologies. MultiMind is composed of 9 academic and 2 non-academic organisations as well as 16 partners in leading academic institutions, companies, health organisations and 5 branches of Bilingualism Matters, a leading international network of centres that provide outreach activities on multilingualism. The consortium brings together researchers with complementary expertise within the disciplines of linguistics, psychology, education, neuroscience, and speech & language therapy along with non-academic partners within the education and health sectors, IT and publishing. This will enable to address societal challenges within education and health as well as challenges related to the migration and refugee crisis in Europe whilst training a new generation of researchers in world-leading labs using cutting edge methodologies and allowing them to build the necessary skills fostering their career progress as independent researchers in academic or nonacademic sectors.