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Dear Members,
Spring symbolizes a fresh start. In this month’s Bulletin, find out what new activities we have in store for you. Also join us to celebrate our new achievements! From all of us at Informatics Europe, we wish you a new season filled with positive changes!
In this issue:
Registration opens for Residential Academic Leadership Course
After four successful cohorts of the online Academic Leadership Development Course, we are delighted to launch a residential cohort for leaders with substantive leadership role this June.
The Residential Academic Leadership Course will take place between 21 and 24 June 2022 at Hotel Schloss Weikersdorf in Baden: the popular spa town southwest of Vienna, Austria. During the three-day course, Prof. Geraldine Fitzpatrick and Prof. Austen Rainer, senior informatics/computing academics, will guide you with their strong leadership experience and evidence-based approaches towards better leadership. Full details and more highlights of takeaways can be found here.
Registration opens now until 18 May. You can save EUR 150 if you register on or before 19 April. Participants from IE member institutes can save a further EUR 450 registration fee: act now!
Major Breakthrough in the Provision of Digital Skills in Education and Training
IE President Prof. Enrico Nardelli and Board Member Prof. Michael E. Caspersen, core members of the Informatics for All coalition since its establishment, have been invited to present the recently published “Informatics Reference Framework for School” to the European Commission (EC) at a stakeholder consultation meeting, on 6th April in Brussels, in preparation for a Council Recommendation on improving the provision of digital skills in education and training.
The Reference Framework was published this February as a report to support the advancement of informatics as a fundamental discipline for the 21st century. Since 2012, IE has been advocating for the inclusion of informatics in schools across Europe. In 2018, IE joined forces with ACM Europe Council and Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS) to establish the Informatics for All coalition, consolidating the effort to promote the need and implementation of high-quality computing education (informatics) at all levels of education. In 2020, the Technical Committee on Education of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) also joined the coalition.
During the stakeholder consultation meeting, the Reference Framework has been discussed with Antoaneta Angelova-Krasteva, Director for ‘Innovation, Digital Education and International Cooperation’, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC), European Commission, and Georgi Dimitrov, Head of the ‘Digital Education’ Unit in the same Directorate. The vision proposed in the Framework, which provides a minimum set of high-level common requirements, leaving space for the national communities in various countries to derive fully-fledged curricula both attuned to their culture and needs, and coherent with a common European vision of informatics, has been highly appreciated.
This meeting in Brussels is not only a major breakthrough for informatics education but also for IE, who aims to extend collective efforts and expertise of informatics professionals to all areas in informatics at the EC level. Currently we are establishing a permanent working group on Informatics Education Research as well as five other new groups on subjects such as sustainability, open science, societal impact and ethics. Working groups are exclusively open for our members. Kick-off meetings of these working groups will take place in April and May. Find out how you can contribute here.
New IE Task Forces following the National Informatics Associations March Meeting
On 24th March, IE held a hybrid meeting with National Informatics Associations (NIAs) from Europe at our headquarters in Zurich. The meeting aimed to report and get feedback on our present joint initiatives, and to discuss and plan for the next collaborations between IE and the NIAs.
During the meeting, topics such as the GII-GRIN-SCIE conference ranking initiative, a process maturity model for informatics conferences, research data management challenges in informatics and methods of supporting open access publications in informatics were discussed with presentation slides available here. As a result of this meeting, three new task forces are established under the umbrella of the IE Open Science Working Group: (1) a Task Force on Open Access Publication Model, chaired by Alfonso Pierantonio from University of L’Aquila, (2) a Task Force on Open Data and Research Data Management in Informatics, chaired by Michael Goedicke from the German NIA Fakultätentag Informatik, and (3) a Task Force on Maturity Model for Informatics Conferences, chaired by Carlo Ghezzi from Politecnico di Milano. We encourage IE members to join the NIAs in contributing to these working groups and task forces. Register here or contact kitwan.chui@informatics-europe.org for more information.
IE Scientific Webinars by distinguished speakers in April and May
Our webinar series will continue with the following distinguished speakers from our member institutes:
- Title: Human-Centric Multimedia Systems: towards volumetric video conferencing
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Pablo Cesar, CWI & TU Delft (the Netherlands)
Date: 21 April 2022 (Thu) at 5pm (CEST)
Register to attend here.
- Title: Automated Program Reasoning
Speaker: Prof. Laura Kovacs, TU Wien (Austria)
Date: 30 May 2022 (Mon) at 5pm (CEST)
Register to attend here.
Our webinars are great opportunities for members of your institute to showcase research activities and achievements to a wide audience across Europe and beyond. We welcome speaker nominations from our member institutes. Send us a proposal, be our next honorable speaker to exchange insights with the informatics communities!
Proceedings of the 1st Early Career Researchers Workshop at ECSS 2021
At the European Computer Science Summit (ECSS) last year, we introduced the first Early Career Researchers Workshop. PhD students and early career researchers in informatics gained valuable career tips from invited academic and industry speakers with profound experience and achievements in informatics. Participants were invited to submit their CV and a research statement, on which they received feedback and suggestions for improvement. The final version of the accepted research statements has now been submitted for online publication as workshop proceedings and is available for download under “Reports” on our publication webpage.
Congratulations and thank you to all participants who contributed to this workshop proceedings! Another Professional Development Workshop for Early Career Researchers, with posters session, will be held on the first day of ECSS 2022 (24th October) in Hamburg, Germany. More details will be announced in our next Bulletin and social media – stay tuned!
EUGAIN News
Funding for Short-term Scientific Missions
In the role of Grant Holder of the COST Action European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics (EUGAIN), we are happy to share with you the Short-term Scientific Mission (STSM) grant.
Are you doing research in the field of gender balance in informatics? Do you (want to) contribute to the objectives and deliverables of the European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics (EUGAIN)? Then submit your application for your chance to receive a STSM grant.
The purpose of STSM is to encourage scientists to visit an institution or laboratory in another COST Member state to implement a project with an international team, gain new knowledge or access to equipment or techniques not available in their home institutions. Successful applicants can receive a grant, for traveling, accommodation and subsistence expenses, project implementation, delivery of the report to the COST Action Management Committee and overall effort, of max. EUR 4’000.
Interested? Read more on EUGAIN-STSMs webpage or contact wieneke.emans@informatics-europe.org.
Industry-Academia Collaboration Survey
To create a database of successful initiatives and inspire further collaborations, EUGAIN is currently collecting information about existing successful initiatives across EU on best practices of collaboration between Academia and Industry or other organizations with a positive impact on gender balance in informatics/ICT.
The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete and is open for one month from 6 April here. We thank you in advance for your input.
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Informatics Europe partnership contributes to the success of European funded projects such as EUGAIN. Looking for a pan-European networking partner to strengthen and support your research or education projects? Reach out to us: administration@informatics-europe.org.
Association News
Board Meetings
- 22 April (Fri), 16:00-17:00, online
- 20 May (Fri), 09:30-16:30, Zurich
Don’t forget: As a member representative, you can submit agenda topics and participate as an observer in board meetings. Let us know in case you are interested in this offer!
Executive Committee Meetings
- 19 May (Thu), 09:30-16:30, Zurich
New Informatics Europe Members
We are very pleased to welcome our new member Department of Computer Science, the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. Being our first member from Georgia, they joined a growing IE membership of over 160 institutions from 33 European countries. Check out our current member list.
Members News
Politecnico di Milano, Italy – Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation at the Service of Business
Executive Vice Rector of the Politecnico di Milano, Donatella Sciuto, has announced the creation of the Polimi Artificial Intelligence Research and Innovation Center (AIRIC), a new a cross-departmental structure joining the main areas of expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation.
The core of AIRIC consists of the technical skills for developing AI algorithms and tools and project management skills. AIRIC is coordinated by Prof. Nicola Gatti and Prof. Marcello Restelli (Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering) together with Prof. Giovanni Miragliotta (Department of Management Engineering) and a group of researchers. AIRIC mission is to help companies focus on the risks and opportunities of the AI revolution, to lead them in the introduction of AI in their processes and products, and to support them in developing internal expertise to meet the challenges of the future. For more information, see the website: https://airic.polimi.it/.
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This space is available to include relevant news from our member institutions. If you would like to share your news, please contact Kit Wan Chui.
New Jobs @ Informatics Europe Job Platform
There are 19 new job openings on the Informatics Europe Job Platform!
As members, you can advertise and extend your search to attract the best candidates for your open positions on the IE job platform free of charge!
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