The aim and objective of the Mercator Institute are to participate in the fields of media and culture with a specific focus on multilingual, bilingual and minority language contexts. To this end most of the work of the Mercator Institute will include an international or comparative element and there will be emphasis placed on working with and through networks.
The Mercator Institute was established in 1988 with the Mercator Media project which has worked to gather, store, analyse and distribute information on regional and minority language media through a documentation and information network. It has produced 10 volumes of the Mercator Media Forum journal and held many international conferences on the media and languages, including most recently a national academic conference on the 25th anniversary of the Welsh language broadcaster, S4C.
The Institute has grown to include major international projects such as Literature Across Frontiers and Welsh Literature Abroad. It is hosted within Aberystwyth University, Wales.