This paper presents the design of an ongoing PhD project on the concept of CULTURE within cognitive approaches to translation research. The goal is to develop an approach to CULTURE that can be operationalised in empirical research within the framework of Cognitive Translatology. The point of departure is that the notion of culture is best understood as a dynamic construct. After a brief introduction to the cultural turn in translation studies, the paper outlines how CULTURE is conceived of and operationalized in some instances of Translation Process Research and also in some second-generation cognitive paradigms (social and situated cognition). Then the background, rationale and methodological grounds of the PhD project are sketched.