Welcome to CASCADE

10 PhD projects

This international network of 10 doctoral research projects aims to train new researchers in developing and using creative methods for analyzing how the meaning of words changes in different situations. They will focus on understanding how language expresses meaning in various contexts, particularly over time.

Funded by Horizon Europe under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks and the UKRO.

The data economy

CASCADE responds to a skills deficit in the academic, public and commercial sectors: the need for people to be able to retrieve, critically evaluate and make better use of the large volumes of textual data that characterise our contemporary information society (the ‘data deluge’). It will help address the critical skills shortage in big data and learning analytics identified by the EU’s European Strategy for Data and the UK’s National Data Strategy, and contribute to the expansion in the EU and UK’s pool of data science talent.

Five world-leading universities

The consortium involves collaboration between some of Europe’s leading universities from the Ireland, Finland, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom.

  • University College Cork
  • University of Helsinki
  • Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • Universität des Saarlandes
  • University of Sheffield

Internships, work placements and training

The training approach includes ten research projects hosted by five organizations, along with internships and work placements. It is reinforced by a network-wide program of Training Camps and Research Conventions.

Publications and other outputs

The network is expected to produce 10 doctoral theses and other outputs, such as co-authored articles for experts, Wikipedia articles, Github pages, contributions to public discussions, educational videos for the general audience and secondary schools, as well as new software and algorithms.

Employability

The network’s unique feature for potential researchers is its focus on combining computational linguistics and humanities scholarship. This combination aims to provide value and a competitive advantage to organizations involved in semantically-aware information retrieval. These organizations can be academic or commercial, engaged in early-stage research and development, applying new methods, or communicating scientific knowledge for public understanding.