Languages are currently valued mainly as practical tools for basic transactions in monoglot contexts. Yet language use is a creative act. Languages evolve in interaction with the needs of individuals who acquire and shape their linguistic resources in interaction with multiple intersecting communities. They change and mingle as cultural constellations shift, and they rapidly turn new technical possibilities into communicative innovations. The crisis of Modern Foreign Languages in UK schools, with its serious consequences for higher education, business, and diplomacy, has its roots in globalisation, the expansion of English as global lingua franca, and diversifying electronic media dominated by English. Arguably it also marks the failure of UK policy-makers and the educational sectors to address these challenges with the necessary understanding, imagination, and unity of purpose. This programme exploits the crisis as an opportunity to engage stakeholders in a collaborative process of rethinking the identity of Modern Languages from the ground up. It will seek to dismantle assumed oppositions between 'vocational' and 'academic' purposes, and develop a concept of languages that responds to the multi-faceted needs of individuals and communities in the contemporary world. Researchers from Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Reading, SOAS (London), and Pittsburgh will pool their expertise in some 40 languages to unlock the subject's creative and connective potential by investigating how languages and creativity interact in processes involving more than one language. Research in seven interlocking strands will analyse how we turn thoughts into language-specific metaphors (strand 1), deploy the resources offered by our language to name the elements of our environment (strand 2), and negotiate language 'barriers' to intelligibility across related languages (strand 3). They will seek to capture the creative stimulus generated by multilingual theatre and music (strand 4), identify the creative processes initiated by multilingual literature (strand 5), and explore the creation of multiple meanings in the act of translation (strand 6). Empirical research will compare functional and creative methodologies in language learning and establish benefits of creative activities for the literacy, motivation, and confidence that are key factors in take-up and progression (strand 7). In order to understand multilingual creativity, we need to engage with a variety of contexts and exchange knowledge with practitioners. Partners from beyond academia will contribute to focus groups, workshops, conferences and specialised projects. To take just a few examples, the British Council will enhance opportunities for engagement with policy-makers and involve learners across the world. Work on community languages within the UK will be augmented by a window onto linguistic communities across over 120 countries opened up by BirdLife International. Collaboration with Sputnik Theatre Company, Punch Records, the Ashmolean Museum and cultural festivals will facilitate cross-language projects with actors and musicians, an exhibition, a 'Linguamania' celebration and a Multilingual Music Fest for primary school children. English PEN will provide opportunities to find out about multilingual experiments by creative writers. Meanwhile language experts from GCHQ and ING Media will give insights into the creative language skills used in intelligence and PR. Teachers and learners in schools will interact with the research throughout, culminating in an interactive schools Roadshow. The programme will transform research in Modern Languages by invigorating the subject from the grass-roots up to blue-sky research. By putting creativity at the heart of languages, it will reconnect languages with the arts and humanities while allowing their innovative force to become productive across disciplines and communities.