Research and practice

Sara Robertson reflects on the importance of the ITI's ongoing collaboration with academics and teaching institutions, and how this benefits members. 

Part of the answer is academia. Our sector is fortunate to have access to a vibrant and engaged body of active researchers working within long-established and well-respected university language departments. This has many benefits. Firstly, there is the obvious direct access to evidence and insight to inform our decision-making. Secondly, our academic colleagues provide expert input for our training programme. By working together we are able to create high quality learning opportunities that combine theoretical depth with practical application and meet our members’ continuing professional development needs.

ITI is fortunate to have many active academic members; we also offer corporate academic membership to universities. Over the last couple of years I have come to greatly value these relationships and so, as we come to the end of another academic year, this seems like an ideal moment to reflect on how these partnerships help ITI deliver an important element of our mission: to promote and uphold our standards for professional conduct through training and education.

Continuing Professional Development

In 2023 we began a conversation with the Centre for Translation Studies about working together to deliver online training courses. This led to the creation of the well-received Translation and AI course. The translation course has now been delivered four times to nearly 200 participants and continues to receive highly positive feedback.

“It is one of the best courses I have attended; it gives you practical and theoretical standpoints and inputs.”

We have since developed a follow-up Interpreting and AI course, with the first cohort coming together later this month.

Professional standards

While AI is undoubtedly a key topic we have also chosen to focus on professionalism and ethics. Together with Dr Joseph Lambert of Cardiff University I have been working on a project to develop a Code of Ethics. Beginning with a couple of pilot conversations with members this quickly evolved into our Coffee House sessions, an online space where academic experts in various fields share their current research on ethical issues in translation and interpreting and debate the implications with ITI members and others in small, tightly focused breakout sessions. The outputs of this project are freely shared on our website - Exploring ethics - but the real success of this endeavour has been the new connections that have been made between academics and practitioners, and the tangible ideas for action that have emerged and are now being considered.

Research

We are also delighted to practical support for academic projects, regularly working with researchers to identify research participants or to facilitate information gathering through surveys and other methods. A notable recent example was the Chasing Status project delivered by Dr Callum Walker (Leeds), Dr JC Penet (Newcastle) and Dr Joseph Lambert (Cardiff) which explored the sustainability of the freelance translation profession in the UK. Callum and Joseph have also been involved in a parallel project to analyse the freelance rates data captured by the 2022 Inbox Translations survey, which was also supported by ITI. Their work was recognised in the award of the John Sykes Memorial Prize in 2024.

Using our platform to disseminate the outputs and findings of research projects is an important contribution that we can make to bridging the gap between academia and practice. We encourage our academic members and others to participate in our biennial conferences, to write up their research findings for our magazine – the ITI Bulletin – or to contribute articles for the ITI website. This is a valuable way to ensure that the wider professional community has access to cutting edge knowledge and ideas. After Dr Matt Riemland gave a thought-provoking and highly informative presentation about the ethical harms of AI in one of our Coffee House sessions we persuaded him to share his knowledge through an in-depth article, which now forms a useful resource for our members and their clients.

Knowledge exchange

Facilitating dialogue between academia and professional associations is key to supporting good practice. ITI is a member of various academic fora and we have a particularly strong relationship with APTIS (the Association of Programmes in Translation and Interpreting Studies, UK and Ireland). I took part in a panel discussion on professionalism at their conference in Belfast in 2023 and will be taking part in an again this November. The conference theme is very pertinent: Better together: how can industry and academia collaborate to empower future language professionals? We are therefore working with APTIS to encourage our members to respond to the call for papers.

The sharing of knowledge continues through participation in other conferences. We were pleased to support last year’s Ethics and Self-Care in Translation and other Professions conference held at Newcastle University and I am looking forward to presenting a paper at the first International Conference on Ethics and Translation with Dr Joseph Lambert later this year.

Looking ahead

These partnerships demonstrate the positive outcomes that can be achieved when academic rigour meets practical experience in pursuit of a shared goal. As the translation and interpreting profession continues to evolve, particularly with the ongoing integration of AI technologies, the need for evidence-based approaches to training and ethical standards becomes ever more important. ITI remains committed to fostering these collaborative relationships, ensuring that we use research findings to support practitioners while providing academics with access to real-world insights to inform their work. It is a virtuous circle that will ultimately benefit our profession and our members.