The Institute of Oromo Studies would make the breadth of scholarship activities at Jimma University visible and accessible both within the Institute and externally. The Institute would develop a web portal to showcase Oromo scholarship and teaching across the University. The portal would serve both as an electronic resource and provide information on Institute events, including links to the rich set of activities in other academic units across the four campuses. The site would also include links to the programs and faculty of the many units engaged in Oromo studies.The Institute would foster and facilitate networking activities at the University. It would create both a physical and virtual spaces where the scholars of the University can meet and organize conferences and seminar series. The mandate of the IOS encompasses mounting four campus activities, including colloquia and seminars at IOS.In the long term, the Institute would sponsor distinguished visitors ships, exchanges and fellowships.Furthermore, the institutes will carry out the following activities:
•Conducting language surveys, with a view to producing language maps and atlases;
•Establishing an archival Centre for all research done on the indigenous languages of the nation: books, articles, conference papers, dissertations (Honours, MA) and theses (MPhil, DPhil), with as much as possible in electronic form;
•encouraging databank exchanges throughout the region and elsewhere and enhancing collaborative research exchange;
•assisting in the development, consolidation, standardization and dissemination of terminology in at least the national languages from a wide variety of subject areas, such as medicine, law, physical and biological sciences etc.
•contributing to language development policies and standardization through research publications;
•developing outreach programmes for public education on dictionaries, dictionary use and general language and cultural issues, with the aim of cultivating a culture that recognizes and appreciates multilingualism;
•launching and publishing a regional journal or other serial publication;
•supporting research seminar and public lecture series on appropriate themes;
•facilitating host arrangements for guest research scholars in appropriate disciplines; and
•Organizing international conferences and workshops.