"The rapid growth of cross-border markets and global concerns are creating a huge demand to facilitate knowledge sharing between societies. The diversity of languages, cultures, and standards are the main barriers to sharing and consuming knowledge. The objective of the SIERA project is to reinforce closer and sustainable scientific cooperation between Palestinian and EU scientists in the field of multilingual and multicultural knowledge sharing technologies. This objective is attained through integrating BZU Sina Institute, which is the largest ICT research centre in Palestine and among a few in the Arab world in this field, into the European Research Area. BZU Sina institute will twin with four leading European research institutions that are pioneers in the area of multilingual knowledge sharing and have an excellent profile in research cooperation at the European and international levels. This collective expertise and scientific excellence will be utilized to help BZU Sina Institute enhance its research cooperation capacity. In particular, the project aims at achieving the following specific goals: (i) Widening the R&D strategy of BZU Sina Institute, (ii) setting up joint research and cooperation, (iii) facilitating PhD students co-supervision, (iv) Organizing joint summer courses, (v) building competency and facilitating the participation of BZU Sina Institute in FP7, and (vi) increasing the visibility and impact of BZU Sina Institute at the regional and international levels."