Communication has been from the creation of TermCoord in 2008 a very important field to raise awareness about the importance of terminology in the Institution, to improve the interinstitutional cooperation and to network with the international stakeholders of the evolving sience of terminolgy in Academy and in Industry. We created a communication team under my personal supervision consisting of a permanent staff member and a team of trainees with academic communication and linguistic skills, who updated daily the website and the social media accounts of the Unit. We frequently updated the Communication Strategy that we made public in the spirit of transparency that characterised the activity of Unit:
Who we are
The Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament belongs to the Directorate – General for Translation. TermCoord’s main role is to assist translators with their day-to-day tasks and facilitate terminology research and management in the translation units, as well to increase the EP’s contribution to the EU terminology database IATE. We are a team comprised of permanent staff, trainees and study visitors that work on terminology and communication tasks.
What we do
In a nutshell:
- Coordinate IATE and prepare different terminology projects involving the terminologists and trainees of the translation units.
- Make different terminology and documentation tools and resources available to in-house and external translators.
- Look for new terminology and provide related glossaries and definitions for important legislative procedures.
- Organize various training sessions and workshops, as well as larger academic seminars on terminology-related issues.
- Cooperate with relevant services and management groups both within the Parliament and on an interinstitutional level.
- Keep in contact with universities, terminology bodies and experts in order to share knowledge, experience and material.
Our vision
TermCoord’s goal is to continue being a worldwide reference point for terminology management, while constantly improving the way in which we support in-house translators. Our aim is to be a haven for language professionals and those interested in terminology, translation, linguistics and interpreting. We are strongly committed to making terminology accessible to a wider audience, both through daily communication and projects done in cooperation with individuals and organizations.
Rules
- The content of TermCoord’s web-presence is under the responsibility of the Head of the Unit or delegated to permanent staff members.
- Publishing is following EP’s GDPR.
- All photos and images are taken from the repositories available by the EP.
- Posts in the websites and social media accounts cannot contain publicity for commercial activities.
- Posts in the websites and social media accounts cannot contain any political views or comments about national, religious, gender and other sensitive related topics (based on EP’s respective policy).
Online presence
To support the goal of making terminology accessible to citizens, TermCoord puts a great effort into maintaining an active and coherent online presence. Interesting readings, useful resources and important information related to languages, EU and global matters can be found on the Unit’s website termcoord.eu, as well as the following social media channels:
With the aim of improving social media visibility, a rebranding of the Unit’s channels to @terminEUrope was proposed and implemented in 2020 by Lara Karlović, Communication Trainee. We believe it brings the Unit’s work closer to different types of audience that are present on respective channels.
Messages
Certain key messages are always included in our communication activities. Two most important ones are listed below.
Languages are not barriers – they are bridges.
Multilingualism is not a privilege – it is a right.
It is essential that these messages be transferred to our audience in a clear and useful way. To properly target our audience, basic SEO principles are applied when creating content. More on these basics can be read in the SEO Fundamentals training provided for TermCoord members in May 2020 by Lara Karlović.
Target Audience
Our audience can be segmented into five main subgroups:
- EP translators
- Other EP staff
- TermCoord staff
- Other EU staff: The main communication channel is the interinstitutional terminology portal EurTerm, co-managed by TermCoord and other Institutions. TermCoord has been entrusted the main responsibility for managing its language specific wikis.
- Other: people interested in terminology, translation, interpreting, linguistics and languages. In particular; professionals, academics, experts and students.
Prepared by María Dolores Fernandes del Pozo, Communication Trainee at TermCoord (2017).
Updated by Olena Khomiakova, Communication Trainee at TermCoord (2021).