The Swiss Federal Administration employs about 200 translators and specialist linguists. Their work is assisted by the Terminology Section, which places a →terminology database, →TERMDAT, at their disposal. TERMDAT is a copy of EURODICAUTOM (the database of the European Commission's Translation Service). One of its goals is to provide equivalents in the official languages of the Confederation of legal and administrative →terminology as well as scientific and technical →terms used in government services.
To ensure the quality of the records to be stored in TERMDAT, the Terminology Section follows the standard stages of the →terminographic process. Moreover, it has adopted a particular deposit policy to reduce redundancy in the database to a minimum.
Since the aims of TERMDAT exceed the resources of the Terminology Section, collaboration is needed at all levels and the idea of networked co-operation, i.e. common projects or data exchange, is constantly gaining ground within and beyond national and linguistic borders.