Europe is a multilingual society, in which dozens of languages are spoken. The only op tion to enable and to benefit from multilingual ism is through Language Technologies (LT), i. e., Natural Language Processing and Speech Technologies. We describe the European Lan guage Grid (ELG), which is targeted to evolve into the primary platform and marketplace for LT in Europe by providing one umbrella plat form for the European LT landscape, includ ing research and industry, enabling all stake holders to upload, share and distribute their ser vices, products and resources. At the end of our EU project, which will establish a legal en tity in 2022, the ELG will provide access to ap prox. 1300 services for all European languages as well as thousands of data sets.

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This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of innovation and the ELG marketplace as core elements for the generation of value and the creation of an active, attractive and vibrant community surrounding the European Language Grid. Innovation is an essential element in making ELG a credible and sustainable undertaking. However, it does not happen by itself nor materialise in a vacuum. Consequently, ELG provides a habitat for various kinds of innovation and a home for the necessary community to put innovation into action. The marketplace is essential for attracting participants supplying and demanding services, resources, components and technologies on a European scale. Innovation and marketplace – as well as the overall business model – are tightly connected and need to be developed and managed in a joint manner. Clearly, this is not a one-off activity, but rather needs to be carried out continuously and extend into the future. ELG is designed and created to promote the excellence and growth of the European LT market, creating new jobs and business opportunities and supporting European digital sovereignty. Encompassing a wide array of technologies and resources for many languages spoken across Europe and in neighbouring regions, it contributes to the Multilingual Digital Single Market as a cross-European driver for innovation.

When preparing the European Language Grid EU project proposal and designing the overall concept of the platform, the need for drawing up a long-term sustainability plan was abundantly evident. Already in the phase of developing the proposal, the centrepiece of the sustainability plan was what we called the “ELG legal entity”, i. e., an independent organisation that would be able to take over operations, maintenace, extension and governance of the European Language Grid platform as well as managing and helping to coordinate its community. This chapter describes our current state of planning with regard to this legal entity. It explains the different options discussed and it presents the different products specified, which can be offered by the legal entity in the medium to long run. We also describe which legal form the organisation will take and how it will ensure the sustainability of ELG.