Global collaboration
In 2019, Associate Professor Tatsuya Amano founded translatE, a world- leading initiative that applies scientific approaches to the often-overlooked challenge of transcending language barriers in science. He and his global collaborators have successfully produced findings that highlight the impact of language barriers on science, and have additionally provided a range of solutions that journals, societies, conferences and scientists can take to begin addressing the issue. “[This award] is another opportunity for me to show [our global collaborators] how important their work is, and how their work is perceived by such a big society. It’s a great opportunity and such a big honour.”
translatE has identified three key types of language barriers in science: “language barriers to the global synthesis of scientific evidence, language barriers to the local application of scientific evidence, and language barriers to the generation of scientific evidence – so that’s language barriers for non-native English speakers”, Tatsuya explains.
These barriers can, in turn, cause a range of ramifications for individual scientists, science and society as a whole. translatE aims to increase our understanding of what these potential consequences may be, and how we can overcome them.
What should you know:
- Currently, one third of global scientific knowledge may be ignored as it is only available in languages other than English.
- About half of decision-makers may not be utilising scientific evidence that is available only in English.
- 95% of the world’s population may be missing out on the opportunity to make their best contribution to science because their first language is not English.

Image credit: Samantha Wong-Topp
A universal problem
Despite the substantial impact language barriers have had on science, Tatsuya says we may be beginning to see increased appreciation for the severity of the issue. “That’s a big motivation for me, and this award might also reflect that – you know, people’s changing views towards this kind of problem”, he says. “Previously, language barriers were only viewed as non-native English speakers’ problem, so we had to solve this by ourselves. But now, hopefully, an increasing number of people are viewing this as society’s problem – everyone’s problem. Even native English speakers can benefit by increasing access to scientific literature published in non-English languages, for example. And I believe changing people’s view towards that direction is an important process to solve this problem.”
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