National Flagship Language Initiative - Pilot Program

Monday, April 1, 2002

The NFLC today announced a solicitation for proposals for advanced programs in a selected group of languages. The programs, pilot projects for a broad, "National Flagship Language Initiative," will be awarded funding under an advanced language institutional grant program of the National Security Education Program (NSEP).

The new initiative seeks proposals from U.S. institutions of higher education to demonstrate curricular design and campus administrative structures that are capable of dramatically increasing the number of U.S. students advancing to professional levels of language competency.

Launching the competitive grant program, NFLC director Richard Brecht noted, "The events of September 11 have served, once again, to underscore the need for skilled professionals with competencies in languages critical to U.S. national security. NSEP has initiated the NFLI-P program for what it hopes will be a fully deployed National Flagship Initiative, which it views as another step in forging a new partnership between higher education and the federal sector to help guarantee the future safety, security, and well-being of all Americans."

The NFLI-P program will support the establishment of advanced language learning programs (at Superior [3]) in the following languages: Arabic, including vernaculars; Hindi; Chinese (Mandarin); Japanese; Korean; Persian/Farsi; Russian; and Turkish.

The NFLC is making available information and application materials for the NFLI-P program on its website, http://www.nflc.org/flagship/application.

More information: flagships@nflc.org