Informatics Europe Bulletin - October 2022

Dear Members and Colleagues,

ECSS in October: it’s the exciting time of the year where the Informatics Europe community gathers in-person to discuss critical issues, initiate and follow up collaborative actions to promote informatics research and education. On one hand, we are in full gear making the final preparations for this year’s ECSS in Hamburg, Germany; on the other hand, we are making new progresses in other European projects. Read on to find out more, and we hope to see you in Hamburg to share your views with us!

In this issue:

ECSS Final Call: Join Our Annual In-person Networking Event for Informatics Researchers & Professionals

• Digital Leadership: Workplace Culture and Digital Dexterity
• Future of Informatics Researchers’ Development and Employment
• ECSS Main Theme: Workforce for Digital Transformation, featuring new additional speakers Hannes Federrath, Former President of German Informatics Society & Michael Müller Wünsch, CIO Otto (GmbH & Co KG), Germany
• Informatics for All: Informatics Education at School in Europe, including a presentation and discussion of the newly published European Commission’s Eurydice Report on informatics education
• Ethics4EU & Societal Impact of Digital Transformation, a showcase of our four-year Erasmus+ Project on ethical computer science education for Europe and further discussion organised and led by IE’s Ethics Working Group
• Attracting and Retaining Female Students from Bachelor and Master to PhD co-organised by the COST Action European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics (EUGAIN)
• Open Science and the Future of Research Dissemination in Informatics, with new additional chair Roberto Di Cosmo, CEO & Founder of Software Heritage and speakers Laurent Romary, IRISA’s Director of Culture and Scientific Information and Welmoed Spahr, Managing Director of Apress Media and Vice President Publishing (Computer Science) of Springer Nature Books Group.
  Fill in our pre-event questionnaire until 16 October to have your feedback presented and discussed at this Open Science workshop!

New Release: Eurydice Report on Informatics Education at School in Europe

Informatics education at school plays a key role in meeting the demand for digitally competent citizens and workers. Informatics education equips people with the basic knowledge required to participate, influence and contribute to the development of the digital world.
Eurydice, a network coordinated by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), has recently released a new report called “Informatics Education at School in Europe”, analysing the existing competence and curricular frameworks and the related learning outcomes in school curricula across Europe. Our President Prof. Enrico Nardelli has contributed as Scientific Expert to the report, which examines the subjects throughout primary and secondary education, including learning outcomes related to informatics in 37 European countries (39 education systems). The report also looks at the qualifications of the teachers of these subjects, training programmes and other support measures available to them.
The full Eurydice report can be accessed here. Sonia Piedrafita Tremosa, one of the report authors, will join us for a presentation and discussion of the report at ECSS 2022’s Education Workshop, chaired by our Board Member Michael E. Caspersen and co-organised by IE’s Education Research Working Group. Find out how you can join our workshop now!

Department Evaluation: IE visits the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University

On 6-7 September, our member institute Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University (FI MU) welcomes the IE Evaluation Committee for an on-site visit, as part of the department evaluation service provided by IE. During the two-day visit, we exchanged with students, young and senior faculty as well as visiting their facilities, in particular four labs: Centre for Biomedical Image Analysis, Laboratory of Discrete Methods and Algorithms, Laboratory of Data Intensive Systems and Applications, and Natural Language Processing Centre. Our Evaluation Committee is now finalizing the evaluation report of this faculty and will soon deliver the results to FI MU. We would like to thank FI MU again for choosing our Service and hope the report will contribute to short and long-term strategies enhancing FI MU’s research visibility, quality, and impact.
IE’s Department Evaluation Service is conducted by an Evaluation Committee of internationally recognized informatics researchers, carefully selected from our extensive network by IE’s Executive Committee. Based on a standard procedure, the evaluation can be tailored to meet particular institute’s needs. 

European-Funded Project – EUGAIN: first booklet of the EUGAIN Best Practices series published

As grant holder of COST Action European Network For Gender Balance in Informatics (EUGAIN), we are delighted to announce the first publication of the EUGAIN Best Practices Series: Best Practices from PhD to Professor. The publication is one of the eight deliverables which document EUGAIN’s effort and results in supporting the academic community, policymakers, industry and other stakeholders on addressing key challenges of achieving gender equality in informatics. EUGAIN will again join us at ECSS 2022 this year with a 1-day workshop – come join us for inspiring talks and best practices shared by experts and advocates of gender equality in informatics across Europe! Read more about EUGAIN results and how you can contribute here.

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Informatics Europe positively contributes to the success of European funded projects. 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

• 23 October (Sun), 14:00-18:30, Hamburg
• 25 November (Fri), 16:00-17:00, Zoom

Executive Committee Meetings

• 27 October (Thu), 08:00-16:00, Hamburg
• 15 December (Thu), 09:30-16:30, Zurich

Don’t Miss These IE Activities

Register to join our free “Gender Equality in Informatics” webinar series on Zoom:

• 7 November (Mon), 17:00 (CET)
  “Removing Barriers and Strengthening Self-Assurance of Women in Computer Science: From Discovery of Own Talent to Professional Confidence”
  Speaker: Ute Schmid, University of Bamberg (Germany)
• 12 December (Mon), 17:00 (CET)
  “Alice & Eve: Recommendations on Hiring and Promoting Women for CS Departments”
  Speaker: Marieke Huisman, University of Twente (the Netherlands)

Members News

Microsoft Research – Join Microsoft Research Summit on Technology and Humanity

Our industry member Microsoft Research invites the IE community to participate in Microsoft Research Summit, where the global research community will gather to discuss advances that could empower people in new ways and positively impact our world. This fully virtual event is from 18-20 October 2022 and streaming on European time, as well as Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Everyone is welcome to join this event at no cost by registering at https://aka.ms/ResearchSummitEMEA.

Three stimulating plenary sessions will focus on: 

• The Fifth Paradigm of Scientific Discovery. What transformational impact can deep learning have on the way we practice science? 
• Emerging Foundations for Planet-Scale Computing. What technological breakthroughs do we need to create the cloud of the future? 
• The Future of Human Health. How can research empower medical practitioners and reduce inequities in healthcare?  

Six tracks of thought-provoking sessions will also be presented over three days: 

• Enabling a Resilient and Sustainable World
• Efficient Large-Scale AI
• Amplifying Human Productivity and Creativity
• Building User Trust through Privacy, Identity, and Responsible AI
• Precision Health — From Discovery to Delivery
• Future of the Cloud 

Microsoft hopes that you can join with researchers, engineers, technologists, and innovators across the world for this event. View the full agenda and register here.

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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 14 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!