ELRA is an asociation whose aim is to grant language resources for language engineering and to evaluate its technologies. This way they provide resources for Human Language Technology (HLT). In order to do it, ELRA promotes and supports the development of a scientific field of language resources. They have an operational body ELDA (Evaluation & Language resources Distribution Agency).
ELRA was created when the need of providing language resources in large scale was evident. The European Commission decided then to start a programme called RELATOR, a consortium of reseachers working with the nine working languages of the European Union. Their highest achievement was the creation of ELRA.
ELRA works in the identification, production, promotion, validation, evaluation, distribution and standardisation of language resources or products related to them. They catalogue these language resources, offer legal assistance, organise conferences and evaluation campaigns and even create new resources on demand.
Any European or non-European organisation can join ELRA filling a form and paying an annual fee. Among the advantages of being a member we can list access to databases and legal assistance. Then you can buy from the catalogue and get discounts. If you do not find what you need in this catalogue you are invited to visit a universal catalogue or, if you do not find what you need, you can ask them to design it for you.
Bibliography
“ELRA Home Page”, http://www.elra.info/ (accessed 25/02/08 )
