ECSS 2020 - Highlights

Deans, department heads, research directors, senior and junior academics, industry and public policymakers from all over Europe met online via Zoom, 26-28 October, for the 16th edition of the European Computer Science Summit, ECSS 2020. With the main theme 'Diversity in Informatics Research and Education', the summit was a platform of inspiring presentations and lively discussions tackling questions such as 'Does Informatics as a field benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration?', 'In which interdisciplinary areas does Informatics have the biggest (potential for) impact?',  'How should interdisciplinary research and teaching (including doctoral education) be organised?', and 'How diversity (gender and other dimensions) can help to strengthen Informatics Departments?'

For the first time in its sixteen years of history, ECSS was held as a fully online event. The conference opened on 26 October with a special session on Informatics Education. The session was opened with an insightful speech by the Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, who was represented by Isidro Laso Ballesteros. The opening session was rounded up with three excellent talks on Informatics Education by Wendy Hall, Chair of the Informatics for All Steering Committee, Georgi Dimitrov, Project Leader for the update of the European Commission Digital Education Action Plan and Martin Zachariasen, Rector of the IT University of Copenhagen.

Leaders Workshop

2020 Leaders Workshop was chaired by Mehdi Jazayeri, Università della Svizzera italiana, and Harald Gall, University of Zurich. The central theme was 'Post-Pandemic Ways for Teaching and Research in Informatics', with focus on exploring the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Informatics academic departments across Europe. The Workshop was divided in two sessions featuring speakers and discussants who shared their experiences and discussed actively with the audience. Each session also featured virtual breakout rooms where speakers, discussants and chairs had time for deeper interaction with the participants in smaller groups. Recordings of the different sessions, speakers’s slides as well as results of polls are available for download at the Leaders Workshop webpage.

Diversity in Informatics Research and Education

On the morning of Tuesday, 27 October, ECSS portraited two aspects of Informatics Research and Education Diversity, namely, Interdisciplinarity and Gender Balance. The session was chaired by Letizia Jaccheri, Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Jaak Vilo, University of Tartu and featured two prominent keynote speakers sharing their expert views and insights. Ewan Birney, Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory presented the successful example of the European Bioinformatics Institute in bringing together Computing and Biology and establishing a flourishing environment for the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics areas to become a major driver in both fundamental and applied life sciences research and healthcare in Europe. Vivian Anette Lagesen, Professor in Science and Technology Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, on the other hand, addressed the persistent underrepresentation of women in higher education and research in Informatics and how academic departments can design and create policies for better gender inclusion and equality.

The video recordings and slides of their talks are available on the ECSS 2020 Conference Schedule webpage.

Award Ceremony

Beyond lively discussions and presentations, ECSS 2020 also included time for celebration. At a special Award Ceremony, Informatics Europe announced the project 'Master of IT' submitted by the Coordination Committee of three universities in Denmark (Aalborg University, Aarhus University and University of Southern Denmark) as the winner of the 2020 Best Practices in Education Award. The winner of the 5th Minerva Informatics Equality Award was the Department of Computer Science, University College London, United Kingdom, in recognition of outstanding support for the transition of female PhD and Postdoctoral Researchers into Faculty positions. Both awarded projects were highlighted in presentations by winner’s representatives attending the event.

Dialogue with Members - Informatics Europe Activities and Outcomes

To strengthen members network and allow them to influence future strategic decisions as well as to keep them informed of the main activities and outcomes of the organisations’ work in 2020, Informatics Europe organised an online special session on Tuesday, 27 October, afternoon.

Initially, Svetlana Tikhonenko, from the Informatics Europe office, presented the new developments and data of the Informatics Europe Higher Education Data Portal. The online data portal publishing Informatics higher education statistics from over 20 countries over the past 9 years includes now new sessions with academic positions, career structure and salaries and descriptions of the different higher education system across Europe. The portal is a fundamental service that Informatics Europe offers to its members (raw data can be downloaded exclusively by our members) and the community. Following, Gregor Engels and Enrico Nardelli reported back about the new Academic Leadership Offers initiated by Informatics Europe in 2020, the Digital Humanism - DIGHUM - Seminar Series, the statements and feedback to EU consultations published in 2020 and a report on the ECSS 2019 Creative Coffee Break outcomes. To close the afternoon, the Informatics Europe Annual General Assembly was held, where members voted for Board elections and approved the financial reports and budget.

National Associations Workshop

On Wednesday, 28 October, Informatics Europe organised an online workshop of National Informatics Associations. The half-day morning session was dedicated to the theme ‘Interdisciplinarity and Informatics’. The workshop covered questions in four dimensions: research, education, large-scale trends and societal aspects and aimed at sharing experiences as well as best practices and discussing common concerns and opportunities in the area.
The video recording of the workshop is available on the ECSS 2020 National Associations Workshop webpage.

WIRE Workshop

Why and how to improve gender balance at all stages of the career path in Informatics (Computer Science, Computing, IT, ITC) was the theme of the online 2020 WIRE Workshop organised by the Informatics Europe working group on Women in Informatics Research and Education in the afternoon of 28 October. The 2020 WIRE Workshop was divided into five interactive sessions, chaired by members of the WIRE Working Group, that addressed how gender balance affects the different career levels and what are possible actions for improvement and progress. The event joined together Academia, Industry and Policy (European Commission) for a fruitful debate on how these sectors can work together to inspire and promote change that can impact the access of women to higher education and their ability and prospects of leading successful and fulfilling careers in Informatics in Academia, Industry or other sectors.
The video recordings and talks slides are available on the 2020 WIRE Workshop webpage.

The next Summit, ECSS 2021, will be held in Madrid, Spain, 25-27 October, co-organised by the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and supported by CODDII – Spanish Council of Deans of Informatics. It will be again a unique opportunity to join your European peers to debate the future of our field and contribute to a stronger European Informatics community.

Save the dates on your calendar! ECSS 2021, 25-27 October 2021.

*Please note that the photos below are better seen when applying zoom out.