The IUITLM has been created with a dual purpose: to carry out research of excellence in the interdisciplinary field of linguistic technologies applied to various fields; and to produce practical results (including educational, professional and commercial results) based on such research.

According to the above principles, the main objectives of this Institute will be the following:

1. To synergise and combine efforts, to organise UMA’s resources around a common backbone and link it with the Andalusian network, to facilitate the technological exchange and the internal transversal cooperation, and to increase the quality of the scientific production of its members, as well as the rest of collaborating researchers, in order to raise UMA’s scientific and academic level in the context of (and in collaboration with) the other Andalusian universities, contributing also to the construction of the Society of Knowledge in Andalusia.
2. To contribute to the international visibility of Andalusian research within Andalusia, especially in terms of publications, projects and joint collaborations, and also with foreign centres of recognised international standing, which will result not only in the active participation of Andalusian universities in European and international programmes, but also in the transfer of results and the commercialisation of products, applications and services.
3. To develop a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, generating employment by providing a professional consulting, mediation and remote interpretation service to the Andalusian academic community and society in general.
4. To complete the educational offer of Andalusian universities to prepare competitive professionals in such demanding areas in the sector, like linguistic technologies applied to Translation and Interpretation and multilingual information retrieval (IR), which, however, are not covered by current or future undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Translation or linguistic technologies of the different universities of our Autonomous Region of Andalusia or the rest of the national territory.
5. To promote basic and applied research in subjects of special relevance for the creation, management and integration of knowledge, mainly within the Technical Scientific Research Areas (AICT), among which we will highlight the following: Humanities and artistic creation, Information and Communications Technology, Computational Intelligence, social, economic and legal sciences, Social Integration and Immigration, Globalization and Cooperation, and Tourism, among other possible areas of research.

The Institute brings together 15 UMA research groups, most of them consolidated and with the excellence title, 9 of which are directed by members of the Institute. They belong mainly to research groups (PAIDI) of Humanities (HUM-038, HUM-046, HUM-106, HUM-309, HUM-392, HUM-758 and HUM-800) and Engineering (TIC-113 and TIC-226).