The Basque University of Summer (UEU) is divided into several departments, promoter of the project, and within each of them they have been carrying out days of professionals and researchers, but there were no sessions that would unite all the departments. Despite being Euskaldunes, many did not speak Euskera, and they saw the problem and from there they began to work. Ainhoa Latatu, coordinator of the IkerGazte project, tells us about the need to create a network of Euskaldunes researchers: “We had a general deficit, not just in specific areas of research.”

Although the idea emerged a decade ago, the economic crisis and the delicate situation of the EU made 2015 the time to put the plans into practice. In general, the aim was to bring together researchers working in Euskera, to get to know each other and to show society that Euskera is also useful for research. “I was coming to fill a gap,” says Miren Josu Omaetxebarria, project manager. And that gap is filling: the productions in Basque have increased.

Most research focuses on internationalization, and more than in Euskera, researchers use Spanish. However, there are Basque researchers; we have been made clear by Omaetxebarria and Ainhoa Latatu. Ten years ago the idea of holding the congress at the Basque University of Summer, and since 2015 they have organized three editions, this time in Lapurdi, with the collaboration of the research center of Baiona IKER. Although the research papers are ready to receive them at any time, the congresses are held at a frequency of two years: the first took place in Durango in 2015, in Pamplona in 2017 and in Baiona this year. For three days lectures, workshops, presentations and other activities of international researchers will be held at the Campus de Errobi, and accommodation may be requested for all audiences. The registration period shall be open until 17 May.

Presence of the Basque

The day to day of research is not Basque. The work is carried out in groups or groups, and as in other areas of life, it is enough that one does not know Basque to have access to a foreign language. In general, Omaetxebarria points out that the works are performed in English or Spanish. Once published, the intention to internationalize and socialize the works has a great influence on the choice of the working language, according to the director. One of the objectives is to reach the most common and diverse public, but it is also important to reach the other international researchers: “The research work is carried out within the framework of a scientific community at the global level, to later make public the findings at the international level, publications that have been shared by other researchers from the same field at the global level”.

In any case, he said that since they started with the IkerGazte project they have a more positive view: “We had very interiorized that all the work we had to do for the world had to be in English, but we have seen that it can also be done by looking at the Basque Country, and therefore can also be done in Basque; the Basque is like other languages, also in research”.

On the way to be referential

They already have the third edition and they have come to stay. The two interviewees believe they are well on the way. “We were afraid that we would keep the research papers back this year, and so it will be: that means there is a need, and researchers are asking us to stay and continue,” says Latatu. In the UEU a positive assessment is made, as although the congress is organized every two years, articles are also collected in Euskera. The need for publication remains, therefore, a signal.

Omaetxebarria tells us that the objectives that have been driven to create and that have been set initially have not changed: “With a six-year trajectory and with the contributions of several researchers we have managed to lay a foundation, but we have not moved away from the initial objectives: we continue to drive and we want to continue to drive research in Euskera.” It says that there is generational transmission, that today's young researchers write and pass on their jobs in Basque to the younger ones, those who come later. So you know IkerGazte.

Edition after edition, a significant number of research publications in Basque leave the congress of the IkerGazte project. In addition to researchers, they also receive recognition from universities, research centres and journals based in the Basque Country, and Latatu says that this support encourages them to move forward: “Everyone agrees on this project and I think what we do is very important to the country vision we have.”

Durango, Pamplona and Baiona

Everything is ready for Baiona. The third edition of the IkerGazte Congress will feature Ainhoa Latatu. Looking back, he says that from the first edition to the third things have changed a lot: “There are things that have changed because we have also changed the format: for example, change of place has influenced a lot.” The majority of the population is Gipuzkoan and Vizcain, and the minorities are from Iparralde, according to data from previous years.

In order to foster relationships in informal places, they have given more importance to offering a place to sleep. Beyond a “serious” congress, because they believe it is the right place to establish relationships, meet their members and launch projects for the future. In other editions they also offered a place to sleep, but in Durango, for example, did not succeed – most people moved. Considering that the majority of participants will move around Gipuzkoa and further around Bizkaia, the participants have chosen to stay in Baiona more easily, considerably increasing the number of applicants for the service.

The programme is similar to that of other years, according to Latatu. In the first hour of the day there will be the main conferences, after the presentations of the researchers, and other complementary sessions: workshops, visit to the gaztetxe de Baiona and visit to the organization of the festival Euskal Herria Zuzenean, among others.