Software Research Working Group

Why Software Research Matters

Software underpins Europe's digital future. From AI to cybersecurity, from sustainability to healthcare, advances in software research drive innovation across all sectors. To fully harness this potential, stronger collaboration among European software research associations and institutes is essential.

Through the Software Research Working Group (WG), Informatics Europe (IE) supports efforts to build these connections. We contribute our network, expertise, and policy engagement to strengthen the visibility and impact of software research in European and national funding agendas.

👉 Our Mission: to elevate software research as a strategic priority in Europe by guiding policy dialogues and enabling cross-national collaboration.

Our Goals

Long-term vision:

• Influence future funding programmes to include dedicated software research topics and challenges.
• Act as a reference point for the European software research community when engaging with policymakers and funding agencies.
• Facilitate cross-national collaborations and coordinated research proposals that advance the software discipline in Europe.

Immediate Priorities:

• Establish a network to align strategies and present a unified position on the role of software research in shaping European and national research agendas.
• Draft a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for software research, aligned with the priorities of Horizon Europe and national research strategies.
• Collect endorsements from key academic, industrial and governmental stakeholders to support the SRIA and promote its adoption.
• Engage with National Contact Points (NCPs) and other policy makers in all participating countries to ensure they receive a similar and coherent message on the strategic importance of software research.

How We Work

The IE Software Research WG is part of a broader coalition founded by Informatics Europe and 12 national Informatics and software research associations across nine European countries, including: GRIN (IT), INRIA (FR), CHOOSE (CH), FB-SWT (DE), GDR SciLog (FR), GII (IT), LERO (IE), MDENet (UK), SAST (SE), SISTEDES (ES), Software Center (SE), VERSEN (NL).

Chair: Tanja Vos, Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, Spain
Members: See the full list below.
📌Recent Activities: 

• In-person workshop co-located with the SCILOG (Congrès des Sciences du Logiciel)
• ICSE2026 Future of Software Engineering paper accepted for discussion in Rio de Janeiro: Reclaiming Software Engineering as the Enabling Technology for the Digital Age
• In person workshop co-located with the Software Heritage 2026 Symposium
• In-person workshop co-located with ECSS 2025 in Rennes

📌Future Activities: 

• 23 September, Brussels, Belgium (Valencia Foundation of Innovation): Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for Software Engineering Launch Event. The event will bring together policymakers, researchers, and industry to launch the first European SRIA and shape future software engineering priorities. Stay tuned for further updates.

Get Involved

Join us to support ongoing projects on Software Research.

Whether your focus is education, research, or policy, your contribution can help shape a stronger, more collaborative future for software innovation in Europe.
👉 Join the Working Group

• WG Members

• • Tanja Vos, Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, Spain (Chair)
  • Silvia Abrahão, Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, Spain 
  • Paris Avgeriou, University of Groningen, Netherlands
  • Luciano Baresi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
  • Mikkel Baun Kjaergaard, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  • Domenico Bianculli, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
  • Michel Chaudron, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
  • Přemek Brada, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic
  • Lola Burgueño, University of Malaga, Spain
  • Benoit Combemale, University of Rennes / INRIA, France
  • Xavier Devroey, University of Namur, Belgium
  • Roberto Di Cosmo, INRIA, France
  • Elisabetta Di Nitto, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
  • Yvonne Dittrich, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Morgan Ericsson, Linnaeus University, Sweden
  • Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain
  • Tom Holvoet, KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Timo Kehrer, University of Bern, Switzerland
  • Filippo Lanubile, University of Bari / GRIN, Italy
  • Gerry Longfils, University of Namur, Belgium
  • Elena María Navarro, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
  • Kim Mens, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
  • Tom Mens, University of Mons, Belgium
  • Mark Micaleff, University of Malta, Malta
  • George Angelos Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
  • Gilles Perrouin, University of Namur, Belgium
  • Ernesto Pimentel, Universidad de Málaga, Spain
  • Azzurra Ragone, University of Bari / GRIN, Italy
  • Malin Rosqvist, Mälardalen University, Sweeden
  • Daniel Russo, Aalborg University, Denmark
  • Ina Schieferdecker, TU Berlin, Germany 
  • Alexander Serebrenik, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
  • Mikael Sjödin, Mälardalen University, Sweeden
  • Diomidis Spinellis, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece / TU Delft, the Netherlands
  • Tijs van der Storm, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Netherlands
  • Ernest Teniente, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
  • Andreea Vescan, Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania
  • Jurgen Vinju, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Netherlands
  • Stefan Wagner, Technical University of Munich, Germany

  Additional coalition members:

  • Emil Alégroth, SAST
  • Lionel Briand, LERO
  • Jean-Michel Bruel, GDR-GPL
  • Regina Hebig, FB-SWT
  • Jürgen Mottok, FB-SWT
  • Kurt Schneider, FB-SWT
  • Anthony Ventresque, LERO
  • Steffen Zschaler, MDENet