January 2013 will see the launch of TransStar, a project to train future literary translators and cultural brokers. The project, managed by the Department of Slavonic Studies of the University of Tübingen (http://www NULL.slavistik NULL.uni-tuebingen NULL.de/transstar NULL.html) (Germany), includes participants from six European countries and will involve universities and cultural institutions in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, and Ukraine.

TransStar wants to promote less used European languages and less known cultures from the Central and East European regions in order to enlarge the ‘European mental map’ which predominantly focuses on prominent cultures, mostly those of Western Europe.

In order to encourage intercultural dialogue between peripheral and dominant cultures, and between peripheral cultures themselves, TransStar offers a multilateral approach to:

• train future cultural brokers in six European countries,
• introduce practical modules of translation into university schedules,
• establish a stable network among the cultural brokers, and
• attract a general audience with little awareness of less known European cultures.

Apart from the University of Tübingen, the partners of the project are the University of Łódź, Charles University, Prague, the University of Ljubljana, the University of Zagreb, the Shevchenko University, Kiev, the Goethe-Institut, Freiburg Literary Office, the Collegium Bohemicum Ustí nad Labem and the Villa Decius Cracow. The project is funded by the European Union’s ‘lifelong learning’ programme and by the participating organisations.