The increasing significance of language technologies and services in everyday life, together with the “quantum leap” in artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs), underscores the need to strengthen the research community in the fields of computational linguistics, natural language processing, and language technologies in Bulgaria. The establishment of sustainable mechanisms and an environment for the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and expertise is essential for the development of these disciplines. Providing a representative forum for the dissemination of research results is crucial for building research infrastructure in these interdisciplinary areas. This is particularly important for languages with limited resources and technologies, such as Bulgarian, where effective collaboration with the research and technology sectors and the engagement of young researchers are key to future development. The project aims to support the International Conference Computational Linguistics in Bulgaria (CLIB 2026) – an established forum for presenting leading research and fostering collaboration between academia and the industry. The requested co-funding will support: (a) the logistical and technical organisation of the conference; (b) the participation of invited speakers – leading experts in computational linguistics, language technologies, and artificial intelligence – who will present current advances in their research and enhance the event’s international visibility; (c) the delivery of tutorials that will aquaint participants with language resources and processing tools, large language models, and AI agents. The expected outcome is enhancing scientific collaboration, expanding the research community, and increasing international visibility of research conducted in Bulgaria. In compliance with the principles of open science, participation in the conference is free; the conference proceedings and the recordings of the talks will be made freely available online.
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