Institute for Language and Speech Processing

What Institute for Language and Speech Processing does

The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) is a Greek non-profit research institute operating under the Athena Research Centre, with facilities in Maroussi (Athens) and Xanthi. Founded in 1991, ILSP is the only Greek research organisation focused exclusively on language and speech technologies, organised into five research departments — Natural Language Processing and Language Infrastructures, Embodied Interaction and Robotics, Culture and Creative Industries, Learning Technologies, and Speech, Media and Content Technologies — supported by five specialised laboratories. The institute's core technology portfolio centres on Greek-language AI: Meltemi (launched 2024) and Krikri/Llama-Krikri (2025) are the first open Large Language Models for Greek, built atop the CLARIN:EL research infrastructure (coordinated by ILSP since 2016) and decades of accumulated Greek-language corpora. Beyond LLMs, ILSP develops multimodal and embodied-AI assets including the PRAXICON grounded knowledge base, the COSMOROE cross-media semantic framework, and the POETICON sensorimotor-language corpus, alongside dialectal NLP, cultural-heritage digitisation, AR/3D tools (UnityGeoAR), and AR/VR outputs from the CLEPSYDRA lab.

ILSP does not generate revenue through commercial product sales. As a Greek NΠΙΔ non-profit supervised by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, it is funded almost entirely through competitive public grants — primarily from EU programmes such as the Digital Europe Programme (e.g., ALT-EDIC4EU 2025–2028, LLMs4EU, 3D-4CH, Pharos) and Greek national instruments (ESPA/NSRF). It serves academic and research institutions (its primary user base), the European language-technology ecosystem (via consortium participation), cultural-heritage institutions (via digitisation and 3D projects), and graduate students through two jointly delivered MSc programmes (MSc in Language Technology with NKUA; MSc in Digital Humanities with the University of Athens and the University of Cyprus). Distribution of its outputs — datasets, software tools, models, and publications — occurs through open-access repositories, the CLARIN:EL infrastructure, European research consortia, and academic publication channels.

Name

Institute for Language and Speech Processing

Legal name

Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) / Ινστιτούτο Επεξεργασίας του Λόγου (ΙΕΛ)

Website

https://ilsp.gr

Company type

Private

Founded year

1991

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

ILSP is a Greek non-profit research institute under the Athena Research Centre, developing open Greek-language AI including the Meltemi and Krikri LLMs, the CLARIN:EL language-resource infrastructure, and multimodal cognitive-robotics tools. It serves academia, European LT consortia, and cultural-heritage institutions, funded primarily by EU and Greek national grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Language Technology Research and Development

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Classroom & Institutional Language Learning Platforms (Schools/Universities) (EDAFAOAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Translation, Language Accessibility & Reading Support Tools (e.g., TTS, Captions, Immersive Reader) (EDAFAOAL), General Language Schools & Institutes (EDAMAFAA)

Keywords

• Language technology research
• Natural language processing
• Speech processing research
• Large language models
• Language resource infrastructure

Headquarters

HQ city

Athens

HQ country

Greece

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

ILSP conducts research and development in language technologies, producing open-source Greek Large Language Models (Meltemi, Krikri/Llama-Krikri), the CLARIN:EL language resources and technologies infrastructure, and cognitive robotics frameworks (PRAXICON, COSMOROE, POETICON). It also delivers two postgraduate MSc programmes and supports European LT initiatives such as ALT-EDIC4EU, PHAROS, and LLMs4EU.

Product overview

The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) is a research institute within the Athena Research Centre, organized into five research departments (NLP and Language Infrastructures, Embodied Interaction and Robotics, Culture and Creative Industries, Learning Technologies, and Speech, Media and Content Technologies) plus five specialized laboratories. The core product portfolio centers on language technology: Krikri/Llama-Krikri and Meltemi are open Large Language Models for Greek (the first open-source Greek LLM), built alongside the CLARIN:EL language resources infrastructure. PRAXICON provides a grounded conceptual knowledge base for cognitive robotics, while COSMOROE enables cross-media semantic annotation. Research areas span NLP, speech processing, embodied cognition, AI for Greek dialects, and cultural heritage digitization. ILSP also delivers two MSc programs (Language Technology, Digital Humanities) and maintains 14 open-access datasets and 4 open-source software packages.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Meltemi: First open Large Language Model for Greek language launched in 2024
• Llama-Krikri

Products and services

• Meltemi First open-source Large Language Model for Greek, launched by ILSP in 2024 as a foundational AI model for the Greek language and a milestone for Greek AI digital sovereignty.
• Krikri / Llama-Krikri Open Large Language Model for Greek developed by ILSP researchers, part of a new generation of Greek LLMs built to advance open AI for the Greek language and dialects.
• CLARIN:EL Language Resources and Technologies Infrastructure National research infrastructure for language resources and technologies, coordinated by ILSP, providing access to corpora, lexicons, annotated data, and NLP tools for the Greek language and related research communities.
• MSc in Language Technology Interdisciplinary postgraduate programme jointly organised by ILSP and the University of Athens Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, offering training in NLP, speech technologies, machine learning, and language resource development.
• MSc in Digital Humanities Joint interdisciplinary MSc with the University of Athens and the University of Cyprus, offering specialisations in Data Analytics for Humanities, 3D Technologies, Augmented Textual Studies, and Geographic Information Systems.

Quantifiable outcome

• LREC 2026 DialRes workshop: 43 submissions, 34 accepted papers, 70 participants from the dialectal NLP community
• +3 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability11 records

Feature11 records

Partnerships

17 partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• European Language Resources Association (ELRA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 May 2026ELRA organised LREC 2026 in Palma de Mallorca, with ILSP/Athena RC co-organising the DialRes workshop on dialectal NLP. Joseph Mariani (ELRA President Emeritus) and Chalid Choukri (ELRA Secretary General) participated.
• Alliance for Language Technologies (ALT-EDIC)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025ALT-EDIC is the core partner in the ALT-EDIC4EU project. ILSP contributes to all project activities with a focus on infrastructure deployment and mapping of the European language technology landscape. The project is funded by the Digital Europe Programme for 48 months (2025-2028) and addresses Europe's need for AI and LLM autonomy.
• Athena Research CentrecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerILSP is an integral part of the Athena Research Centre (E.K. 'Athena'), which serves as its institutional parent. ILSP activities, including CLARIN:EL infrastructure, are operated under the Athena RC umbrella.
• Charles UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in the ALT-EDIC4EU project. One of nine core partners contributing expertise in language technology infrastructures, data spaces, and LLMs.
• Evaluations and Language resources Distribution Agency (ELDA)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in ALT-EDIC4EU. ELDA is a key European language resources distribution agency contributing to the federation of the European language technology ecosystem.
• Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in ALT-EDIC4EU. FBK contributes expertise in language technology infrastructure and LLMs as part of the nine-member core consortium.
• Institut Jozef Stefan (JSI)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in ALT-EDIC4EU. JSI brings expertise in language data spaces and large language models to the project consortium.
• Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Politechnika Wroclawska)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in ALT-EDIC4EU. Contributes to the European LT evaluation and mapping activities of the project.
• Tilde SAmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in ALT-EDIC4EU. Tilde SA contributes to the project focusing on European language technology evaluation and operations.
• University of GranadamajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in ALT-EDIC4EU. Part of the nine-member consortium working on language technology infrastructure and European AI ecosystem development.
• University of Athens (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-organiser of the MSc in Digital Humanities jointly with ILSP/ATHENA RC and the University of Cyprus. Also co-organiser of the MSc in Language Technology.
• University of CyprusmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-organiser with University of Athens and ATHENA RC of the MSc in Digital Humanities.
• Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, NKUAmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-organiser with ILSP of the MSc in Language Technology, providing interdisciplinary education in NLP, speech technologies, and machine learning.
• European Language Resources Association (ELRA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStelios Piperidis served as President of ELRA. ILSP maintains a close relationship through conference organisation (LREC), publication activities, and joint initiatives on language resources.
• European Association for Machine Translation (EAMT)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerILSP researchers participate in and contribute publications to the EAMT Annual Conference, advancing machine translation research.
• Cognitive Systems Research Institute (CSRI) — FormermajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerKaterina Pastra founded and directed CSRI (2010-2020), an interdisciplinary research organisation focusing on multimodal cognition and embodied language processing. Activities have been integrated into ATHENA RC.
• Language and Robots LabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed by Katerina Pastra, this lab develops cognitive robotics and embodied language understanding systems, producing 14 open-access datasets and 4 open-source tools.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC): Spanish national supercomputing center hosting major NLP and AI research with multilingual LLM initiatives. BSC is part of Spain's participation in European AI infrastructure and competes with ILSP for ALT-EDIC-adjacent funding and projects.
• German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI): Germany's flagship applied AI research center with deep NLP, speech, and multimodal capabilities. DFKI operates at much larger scale and broader scope than ILSP but competes for the same European AI funding pools and talent, and pursues overlapping sovereign-LLM initiatives.
• Inria (French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology): France's national public research institute covering NLP, speech, and AI broadly. Inria pursues French-language AI initiatives that compete with ILSP's Greek-language model and shares the European public-sector AI research mandate.
• University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh NLP Group / School of Informatics): One of Europe's leading academic NLP groups with deep expertise in multilingual LLMs, speech, and language resources. Edinburgh competes for the same EU funding and talent as ILSP and contributes to shared LREC/ELRA infrastructure.

Direct peers

• Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK): Italian public research foundation with one of Europe's leading NLP and AI units (FBK-IIT). Both are non-profit research centers specializing in language technologies, LLMs, and European AI infrastructure, and ILSP and FBK are direct co-partners in ALT-EDIC4EU with comparable roles.
• Charles University (Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics, UFAL): Czech academic NLP center with deep expertise in language resources and Czech/multilingual LLMs. UFAL is a direct ALT-EDIC4EU consortium partner alongside ILSP, and shares the role of national-language AI reference point for a smaller EU language community.
• Institut Jožef Stefan (JSI): Slovenia's largest public research institute, with a leading NLP group developing LLMs and language data spaces. JSI is a direct ALT-EDIC4EU consortium partner alongside ILSP, operating at the same scale and with the same mandate of national-language AI capabilities for a smaller EU member state.
• ELDA (Evaluations and Language resources Distribution Agency): European language resources distribution agency and ELRA operational arm, coordinating dissemination of language technology assets across Europe. ELDA is a direct ALT-EDIC4EU consortium partner with ILSP and operates the same kind of pan-European LT federation role.

Others

• Hugging Face: Open-source AI platform where ILSP's Greek LLMs (Meltemi, Krikri) are published and distributed. Hugging Face is the dominant hosting and distribution infrastructure for ILSP's open-source assets, making it a critical ecosystem enabler rather than a direct competitor.

Emerging players

• Tilde: European language technology company developing multilingual AI and LT evaluation tools. Tilde is a direct ALT-EDIC4EU partner with ILSP and competes in adjacent spaces such as European-language translation and LLM evaluation.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ilsp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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