Informatics Europe


Informatics Europe is the European association of university departments and research laboratories, in the field of informatics.

Overview

Founded in 2006, Informatics Europe is a non-profit organization with head office in Zurich, Switzerland that has grown to represent over 140 members from 32 European countries. Members are institutes rather than individuals and include university departments of Informatics, Computer Science, Computing, IT, ICT as well as public and industrial IT research institutes and National Associations in Europe.
In addition, Informatics Europe liaises with scientific organisations such as the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics and the Computing Research Association.

History

On 21 October 2005, the “1st European Computer Science Summit” brought together, for the first time, heads of Informatics and Computer Science departments throughout Europe. This landmark event was a joint undertaking of the Computer Science departments of the two branches of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology: EPFL and ETH.
Besides the keynotes, talks, panels and workshops, the result of the Summit was the unanimous view that European computer scientists needed an organisation with aims and scope similar to those of the CRA in the US, extended — in light of the situation in Europe — to cover education as well as research. As a result, Informatics Europe was created with the aim to become the recognized voice of the European computer science community, including both universities and research centres.
Bertrand Meyer from ETH Zurich, one of the founding members of the organisation, served as its first President from 2006 to 2011. Carlo Ghezzi, Politecnico di Milano, was the second President from 2012 to 2015. Lynda Hardman, CWI / Utrecht University was the third President, serving from 2016 to 2017. The current President, Enrico Nardelli from Università di Roma 'Tor Vergata', took office in 2018.

Mission and Activities

Informatics Europe is involved in a number of activities with the mission to foster quality research, education, and knowledge transfer in Informatics in Europe.

ECSS - European Computer Science Summit

The European Computer Science Summit takes place once a year and offers a platform where leaders and decision makers in Informatics research and education in Europe gather to debate strategic themes and trends related to research, education and policies in Informatics.
Past Summits since 2005:
Informatics Europe fosters various working groups to shape strategic priorities within the European Informatics community. Each working group has thereby a focus on a specific topic or goal that is agreed on in the beginning of each year. The current groups are as follows:
Each year, Informatics Europe presents two awards recognizing outstanding initiatives that advance the quality of research and education in Informatics in Europe.
The Best Practices in Education Award recognizes educational initiatives across Europe that improve the quality of Informatics teaching and the attractiveness of the discipline.
The Minerva Informatics Equality Award recognizes best practices in Departments or Faculties of European Universities and Research Labs that encourage and support the careers of women in Informatics research and education.

Services

Informatics Higher Education Data Portal

The Higher Education Data Portal is a project of Informatics Europe created with the goal of providing members, the Informatics academic community, policymakers, industry and other stakeholders a complete and reliable picture of the state of Informatics higher education in Europe.  The full dataset, consisting of 8 years of data from over 20 countries, is the only one of its kind in Europe. The focus on Informatics, and the central role played by data curation makes it unique, reliable and relevant.

Leaders Workshop

Every year Informatics Europe organises a special Workshop for Leaders of Informatics Research and Education, as part of the ECSS global program, to address specific challenges they encounter in their role. The workshop is a unique networking forum for leaders of Informatics institutions and research groups, and focuses on concrete issues and practical solutions.

Informatics Job Platform

The Informatics Europe Job Platform lists open scientific positions in Informatics and closely related fields and includes positions requiring a PhD degree or higher.

Department Evaluation

The Department Evaluation is a service offered by Informatics Europe to assess research quality in Informatics, Computer Science and IT in university departments/faculties.

Informatics Research & Education Directory

The Research & Education Directory includes institutions doing research and offering education in Informatics in Europe. The directory provides quick access to these institutions and to more detailed information presented by them.

Publications