Vision/Strategy

Vision

To stimulate and enable digital research and development in South Africa’s 11 official languages, to cultivate, create awareness and grow DH scholarship in South Africa and the continent, while creating strategic synergies with local and international partners with similar or complementary infrastructure.

Mission

To develop and promote all 11 official languages to be capable of expressing all forms of knowledge, and to drive their use and function in research and development, education, social transformation, trade, and economic and scientific development.

SADiLaR aims to espouse the RICH Plus T (RICHT) Principles:

R= SADiLaR undertakes to promote mutual respect, courtesy and inclusivity in an environment driven by research and productivity.
I= SADiLaR promises to inspire innovation that is impactful and contributes meaningfully to the community.
C= SADiLaR commits to carefully and effectively communicate with all its strategic partners and stakeholders.
H= SADiLaR undertakes to transform research and teaching in the humanities and social sciences through a high-impact DH programme.
T= SADiLaR undertakes to drive with determination, with commitment to teamwork and trust between staff, management, strategic partners, and stakeholders.

Objectives

  1. To stimulate and advance the scholarship of DH across South African Higher Education (HE) sector through collective and collaborative engagements (e.g., enabled through the Escalator project and other incentives).
  2. To open new frontiers of research in the HSS in general by facilitating access to training, tools, and exposure to new methodologies as early as possible.
  3. To provide digital resources and tools for the development of a wide range of language-technology applications (e.g., in the fields of health services, education, social services and business, and support of other infrastructures and initiatives).
  4. To document the nature and use of local African languages, including cultural-heritage practices as part of a living archive (e.g., enabled through language laboratories/hubs and platforms).

Read SADiLaR’s strategy HERE.