The Language Sciences Institute (LSI) aims to connect innovation and expertise in research and learning and will use the collective power and multi-disciplinary strengths of the UHI academic network to reconfigure current approaches to the revitalisation of minority languages. With a particular focus on the traditional Gaelic speaking communities of Scotland, the LSI will build on the work of the Soillse project.

The distinctive features of the LSI are:

• A research and learning institute embedded within a minority language community.
• An open and collaborative approach (between researchers and community participants) to minority language research.
• The co-design of new research methodologies and innovative knowledge exchange processes that will help shape both a national and international perspective on Gaelic language and culture.
• A practice centred approach to language research addressing the challenges of social and economic sustainability within minority language communities.
• Linking localised minority language situations to international perspectives on language revitalisation processes which involve the community in the design of interventions, policy and research.
• Supporting imaginative and progressive language planning and policy initiatives.