The CoCoLaC research community was founded in 2011 and revives the union of German and the Romance languages, which has a long continuous academic tradition of research and doctoral training at the University of Helsinki. CoCoLaC’s main objective is to strengthen the coherence of the group by choosing a comparative and/or contrastive perspective and focus on cross-linguistic studies, which has led and will continue to lead to workshops, seminars, publications and collaborations. As for research on cultural interaction, the focus has naturally been on the ties between Finland and the rest of Europe.