(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation announces 11th ceremony program By Tawfik Lamari Staff Reporter The Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding announces the date for its eleventh ceremony, which will be held on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, in Doha.
This international cultural event celebrates translation as a bridge of understanding between peoples and a fundamental driver of cultural convergence and knowledge exchange. The ceremony will be attended by a distinguished group of Arab and international intellectual, cultural, and media figures, along with academics, translators, and those interested in cultural affairs from around the world, reflecting the award's prominent position on the international cultural scene.
As part of a comprehensive cultural program, the award will host a series of high-quality events on the morning of the ceremony, including: An open seminar on "Translation and Artificial Intelligence" where experts and specialists will participate to discuss the challenges posed by artificial intelligence in the field of translation, particularly those related to quality, accuracy, linguistic biases, and ethical and professional dimensions. The seminar will also address the opportunities these technologies offer for developing translators' tools, accelerating the process, and expanding the exchange of knowledge between languages, thereby strengthening the role of human translation while preserving its cultural specificity. As well as two closed workshops on "Recommendations to support translation between Arabic and German and Albanian".
These workshops will feature a select group of leading translators and experts in translation between Arabic and Albanian and German. They will address the challenges facing translation between Arabic and these languages and explore ways to enhance it. The workshops will produce practical recommendations to be submitted to governmental and non-governmental bodies, with the aim of promoting translation between Arabic and local languages and developing mechanisms for cooperation with relevant institutions in this field.
The eleventh round of the award marks the culmination of its ongoing evolution, coinciding with its entry into its second decade. It continues to expand its cultural impact and modernize its tools and scope of work to respond to the rapid transformations in the field of translation globally. In this context, the award, for the first time, adopted three of the world's most widely spoken languages: English, German, and Turkish, alongside two less widely spoken languages: Albanian and Thai. This reflects the award's commitment to combining influential global languages with local languages that require further support to enhance their presence in the translation movement to and from Arabic.
This cycle was distinguished by the organization of extensive introductory tours in several countries associated with the award's languages. These tours aimed to broaden the partner base, encourage translators and institutions to engage with the award, and assess the realities and challenges of translation within these cultural and linguistic contexts. In keeping with the transformations of the times, the award leveraged AI technologies to reach professionals in the field of translation across all participating languages, both within and outside the Arab world.
This contributed to expanding communication with translators, publishers, and researchers, and enhancing international engagement with the award. These combined results confirm that the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding has cemented its position as the "most important and largest award for translation between Arabic and the world's languages," not only in terms of its broad scope and diverse languages, but also in its ability to influence the global translation movement and shape a shared cultural space based on knowledge, openness, and understanding. The award invites those interested in cultural and media affairs to attend the ceremony and participate in its accompanying programs, celebrating translators and their pivotal role in fostering intercultural dialogue.

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