About SIERA


SIERA” is an EU FP7 funded project in the field of multilingual and multicultural knowledge sharing technologies. The idea of SIERA emerged as a response to the rapid growth of cross-border markets and global concerns which is generating a huge demand to facilitate knowledge sharing between societies. In fact, the diversity of languages, cultures, and standards are the main barriers to sharing and consuming knowledge.

The objective of SIERA project is to reinforce closer and sustainable scientific cooperation between Palestinian and EU scientists in the field of multilingual and multicultural knowledge sharing technologies. Sina institute will twin with four leading European research institutions that are pioneers in this field to: : (i) Widening the R&D strategy of BZU Sina Institute, (ii) setting up joint research and cooperation, (iii) facilitating PhD students co-supervision, (iv) Organizing joint summer courses, (v) building competency and facilitating the participation of BZU Sina Institute in FP7, and (vi) increasing the visibility and impact of BZU Sina Institute at the regional and international levels.

Two domains are selected as testbeds: (A) Cultural Heritage and (B) Environment and Ecology. For cultural heritage, a large set of Palestinian digital content will be integrated with MICHAEL, which is a large EU portal of digital collections from museums, archives, and libraries across Europe. The second, KYOTO, a multilingual wiki-portal about environment and ecology, will be also extended to support Arabic language and content. Extending such portals to support Arabic content and semantic search is a challenging task due to the complexity of the language, and as the Arabic content needs to be semantically interlinked with EU content.

Download SIERA Poster
Download SIERA Leflets

Project Number: 295006
Project Duration: 36 months
Project Short Name: SIERA
Project Full Name: Integrating Sina Institute into the European Research Area

Project Activities

  • WP1: Research Strategy (Leader: Dr. Gianluigi Viscusi)
    • T1.1: Assess society needs
    • T1.2: Revise Sina’s R&D strategy
  • WP2: Networking and Research Setup (Leader: Prof. Christophe Roche)
    • T2.1: Facilitate co-supervision of PhD students
    • T2.2: Set up joint research & cooperation.
    • T2.3: Encourage co-authoring scientific article
  • WP3: Capacity Building in FP7 (Leader: Prof. Paolo Bouquet)
    • T3.1: Organizing proposals writing workshops
    • T3.2: Writing FP7 proposals
  • WP4: Dissemination and Exchange of Knowledge (Leader: Prof. Mustafa Jarrar)
    • T4.1: Organize summer courses
    • T4.2: Organize society-oriented/industrial conference
    • T4.3: Organize international scientific conference
    • T4.4: Develop the project website
    • T4.5: Publish leaflets and poster
  • WP5: Project Management and Quality Control (Leader: Prof. Mustafa Jarrar)
    • T5.1: Technical Management & Coordination
    • T5.2: Financial Management
    • T5.3 Assessment and Quality Control


Overview on SIERA Project: