Empowering Members and Shaping the Future of the Discipline
Informatics Europe contributes to shaping public policy in Informatics research and education through the development of policy outputs such as statements, position papers, reports, recommendations and responses to public consultations. These contributions address issues aligned with the organisation's strategic goals and may target specific stakeholders or a broader audience.
To ensure IE recommendations and responses to public consultations go beyond individual views and personal bias, they are developed by IE Working Groups or designated Board Directors and reviewed by the IE Board before gaining community endorsement.
In particular, the policy recommendations activity aims at empowering members in developing their own strategies, for example, policy recommendations on research evaluation can support member departments in evidence-based discussions with peer departments, university leadership and public authorities. You can explore IE's existing outcomes at the bottom of this page.
Policy Recommendations Working Group
To develop consensus-based cross-national policies, Informatics Europe established a permanent Working Group with volunteer representatives of national Informatics associations, who are members of Informatics Europe. The Working Group consists of:
- An IE Director designated by the Board to serve as the Working Group coordinator;
- A representative of each national association that is a member of Informatics Europe, nominated by their respective association.
Topics of interest may be proposed by any of the WG members, in representation of their institutions/associations, and are reviewed and approved by the Informatics Europe Board. The Working Group aims to focus on high-impact policy contributions, typically two to three per year.
Policy documents are generally developed online using collaborative tools (e.g. shared documents), following a transparent process in which all Working Group members are invited to contribute until a consensus is reached. When a unified position cannot be achieved, we would aim at a ‘state-of-the-art’ summary of positions.
Depending on the nature of the policy recommendation, outputs may include a single document co-signed by all participating stakeholders, or shared resources that members of the Working Group can draw upon when responding to consultations (e.g. surveys or polls). In any case, all final outputs are published on the Informatics Europe website following one or more rounds of feedback from our members.
The outcomes below include contributions from the Policy Recommendations Working Group as well as IE Board-led statements and initiatives.
IE provides feedback on the European Commission's proposal to simplify the digital legislative framework and the Digital Omnibus Package on AI and data, outlining key recommendations to strengthen AI research, education, and literacy in Europe while supporting regulatory simplification, scientific sovereignty, and EU competitiveness.
IE raises serious concerns about the rising costs and inequities of Gold Open Access publishing models and calls for fairer pricing, stronger support for alternative publishing models such as Diamond and Green OA, and collective action to rebalance publishing toward transparency, equity, and academic integrity.
IE, alongside our member National Informatics Associations, calls for software recognition in the EIC Work Programme through dedicated funding and stronger public-private collaborations—essential for Europe’s competitiveness, digital autonomy, and tackling key challenges like cybersecurity and sustainability.
providing a set of policy recommendations directed to policymakers, at national and European level. It contains concise and practical measures that policymakers can adopt to support gender balance in Informatics.
Policy statement prepared by the Board of Directors of Informatics Europe regarding the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), a European regulatory initiative, aiming at increasing the quality and security standards of IT products.
Ethical guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence and data in teaching and learning for educators prepared by the EU Commission Expert Group on AI and Data in Education and Training, where Prof. Viola Schiaffonati (Politecnico di Milano), represented Informatics Europe.
Feedback provided by Informatics Europe to the European Commission for public consultation on the formulation of a set of principles to promote and uphold EU values in the digital space.
Feedback provided by Informatics Europe on the Draft Report of the Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020) task force. CC2020 is a joint project launched by professional computing societies to examine the current curricular guidelines for academic degree programs in Computing and provide a vision for the future of Computing.
Feeback provided by Informatics Europe to the European Commission Public Consultation Questionnaire regarding the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence - A European Approach.
Feedback provided by Informatics Europe to the European Commission Online Consultation Questionnaire regarding the European Strategy for Data.
Joint Statement issued by Informatics Europe and the undersigned National Informatics Associations.
Policy statement prepared by the Board of Directors of Informatics Europe regarding the use of tracking technology in the efforts to control COVID-19 infection spread.
Joint white paper of Informatics Europe Ethics Working Group and ACM Europe on automated decision making (ADM).
Here are our initiatives seeking community endorsement - sign and share among your communities!
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"Open Citations Letter", an initiative started in January 2022, to convince all major publishers in the area of Informatics to freely share their bibliographic metadata and citation data.
- "Rome Declaration", established in March 2019, an appeal to national and international institutions to promote Informatics education in school and for all citizens.
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Current members:
- Heri Ramampiaro, NTNU, Norway (Chair)
- Roderick Bloem, Informatik Austria, Austria
- Maike Klein, GI - Gesellschaft für Informatik, Germany
- Eirini Ntoutsi, FTI - Fakultätentag Informatik, Germany
- Pierre Paradinas, SIF - Société Informatique de France, France
- Silvio Peroni, GRIN - Associazione Italiana dei Docenti Universitari di Informatica, Italy
- Francisco José Quiles Flor, SCIE - Sociedad Científica Informática de España, Spain
Past members:
- Hannes Werthner, TU Wien, Austria
- Elisabeth Schauermann, GI - Gesellschaft für Informatik, Germany
- Heike Trautmann, FTI - Fakultätentag Informatik, Germany
- Antonio Vallecillo, SCIE - Sociedad Científica Informática de España, Spain


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