The Elhuyar Foundation, the IKERLAN technology centre and the MasOrange company have recently joined the HiTZ Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Language Technology (IA&TL) of the University of the Basque Country.

“The chair allows IKERLAN to transfer our technological knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to society and to continue strengthening our research work in favor of applied AI,” said Josu Bilbao, Director of Digital Technologies and AI of IKERLAN. Aitzol Astigarraga Pagoaga, coordinator of the Orai NLP center, points out that "For Elhuyar it is very important to be part of the chair through its artificial intelligence center Orai NLP, to continue researching in language technologies and adapting solutions to the needs of the market". Elisa Perán, Director of Talent at MasOrange, underlines that "The Chair provides an excellent framework for working directly with students in the application of AI and language technologies to real problems."

The HiTZ Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Language Technology the UPV/EHU is part of the National Strategy of Artificial Intelligence (ENIA), part of the Spain Digital 2026 agenda, and has been selected in the call of the Ministry of Digital Transformation to finance university chairs dedicated to research, dissemination, teaching and innovation on Artificial Intelligence. Of the 21 professorships chosen by the Ministry, this is the only one dedicated to language technology and the only one to be developed in the Basque Country. The chair includes researchers and researchers from four AI teams from the Faculty of Informatics of the UPV/EHU – of which the HiTZ-Centro Vasco de Tecnología del Lengua center is noteworthy – as well as the company Avature, a pioneer in the area of technology for the acquisition and management of talents. The chair also aims to promote public-private collaboration in the field of AI applied to language technology.

“The ability to communicate through natural language is a key aspect of intelligence. Language technology is the field within Artificial Intelligence that focuses on the development of algorithms and systems that can understand and interpret human language. This field is leading a revolution within AI, with applications that are changing society, such as machine translation, voice conversational systems, or generative systems like ChatGPT or Gemini. The HiTZ Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Language Technology has an ambitious program to strengthen the leadership of the Basque public university in this technology, as well as to increase the AI competencies of the affiliated companies, and to place the country at the forefront of technology”, emphasizes Aitor Soroa, Director of the Chair.

University-business collaboration

The main objective of the
HiTZ Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Language Technology is to enhance the positive impact of Artificial Intelligence and Language Technology in society in general and in the productive fabric in particular, to strengthen research activities in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Language Technology and to create a solid body of knowledge to nurture the educational offer in different fields that use this technology.

To this end, it has three main lines of work, which it develops together with the companies attached to the chair. “On the one hand, it aims to increase the number of people expert in the field by promoting final undergraduate and master’s studies related to the themes of the chair and the interests of the affiliated companies. In addition, the chair will promote an offer of continuing training aimed at professionals, technicians, business managers and social partners.” Another line of work of the chair is to promote the transfer between researchers and researchers and companies of the chair, creating new collaboration mechanisms that allow the identification of synergies inside and outside of it. Thus, the chair intends to be a meeting place where professionals and academic researchers can share experiences, identify common interests and define and launch lines of study that are attractive to both. Finally, the chair will make a special effort to disseminate the results and disseminate aspects related to Artificial Intelligence and Language Technology, thus transferring to society information about all its activities, as well as the impact these technologies have on it. “This is particularly important at a time when society is sensitized to the advances in AI and the possible risks that these advances entail. Affiliated companies will receive advisory services, the possibility of influencing research lines and the right to attend training courses, as well as to participate in the dissemination days”, concludes Aitor Soroa.