Last week professors Paola Merlo and Valentina Borghesani, and NCCR Outreach Officer Coralie Debracque, visited primary school students in the canton of Geneva. The aim: to present their daily lives as researchers, between meetings, reading and teaching, but also to reinforce the place of women scientists, and even professors, in the collective imagination.
The members of the NCCR Evolving Language gathered last week for the Winter School and Annual Retreat of the consortium in sunny Champéry. Over a few days, around 110 of our researchers presented their work, and connected with colleagues, from PhD students to senior professors.
Discover the backstage of research at the NCCR Evolving Language with Victoria, intern with us during the month of December! After discussing their work and background with researchers Alexis Hervais-Adelman and Marion Bouffier, Victoria has put together a summary for you.
Exploring the past, present and future of language
The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language is a nationwide interdisciplinary research consortium bringing together research groups from the humanities, from language and computer science, the social sciences, and the natural sciences at an unprecedented level. Together, we aim at solving one of humanity’s great mysteries: What is language? How did our species develop the capacity for linguistic expression, for processing language in the brain, and for consistently passing down new variations to the next generation? How will our capacity for language change in the face of digital communication and neuroengineering?
![[3/3] During their career, many female researchers have been faced with inapropriate behaviours and comments, or challenges, just because of their genders. Through the adversity, these women fought (and still fight) for equity. At the NCCR Evolving Language, we strive to empower them, and see them thrive in their work environment. For International Women's Day, we've collected testimonies from our researchers, showcasing their experiences as women in academia.
#internationalwomensday #womeninscience](https://evolvinglanguage.ch/wp-content/uploads/sb-instagram-feed-images/482713874_17958798716868583_2053575134858300107_nfull.webp)
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> All publicationsCraevschi, A., Babinski, S., & Cathcart, C. (2025). Semantics drives analogical change in Germanic strong verb paradigms: a phylogenetic study. https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2502.17670
Our Network
Evolving Language is led by Balthasar Bickel (Department of Comparative Language Science, UZH), Daphné Bavelier (Cognitive Neuroscience group, UNIGE) and Klaus Zuberbühler (Institute of Biology, UNINE). Over 40 research groups across Switzerland are taking part in this NCCR, from 9 different institutions as well as partners in industry (Google AI, Sonova) and public organisations. The project has 3 leading houses: the University of Zurich, the University of Geneva and the University of Neuchâtel.
Leading house
Co-leading houses
Funding agency
Partners
Swiss Data Science Center
Wyss Center
Citizen Science Zürich
Fondation Campus Biotech
Zoo Basel
Neurocenter Science Zurich
Liri
Sonova
Google Research
NCCR Research Facilities
