Faculty staff and DEI´s Subdirector Ana Cristina Ramada Paiva was recently appointed to integrate the Board of Informatics Europe for a three-year mandate (2025-2027).
The nominating committee of this organisation, whose origins date back to 2005, was unanimous in proposing the name of the DEI’s lecturer for a position on the board, recognizing the importance of her research work in Software Engineering and her willingness to offer her services to the community.
Ana Paiva on her new challenge tells us “ Being part of the IE board means being able to give Portugal a voice in the European context and contribute to the IE mission, that is, to empower and unite the Informatics community in Europe and contribute to the development of Informatics policies for education, research and social impact.”
The origins of Informatics Europe can be traced back to the first European Computer Science Summit (ECSS) held at ETH Zurich in 2005 (later renamed the European Computer Leaders Summit in 2024), which for the first time brought together heads of computer science and informatics departments from all over Europe. Apart from the lectures, panels and workshops, the most important outcome of the summit was the unanimous opinion that European computer scientists urgently needed an organisation with objectives and scope similar to those of the CRA (Computer Research Association) in the USA, extended – in view of the situation in Europe, to cover both teaching and research. Consequently, the “European University and Research Organisation for Information Technology and Computer Science (EuroTICS)” was created with the aim of becoming the recognised voice of the European computing community, including universities and research centres. The name of the organisation was later changed to ‘Informatics Europe’.
The organisation represents the academic and research community in Informatics (or Computer Science) in Europe. Bringing together university departments, research laboratories and industry, the EI has around 200 member institutions in more than 30 countries, linking more than 50,000 computer science researchers in Europe and beyond. The EI creates a strong voice to promote concerted positions, acting on shared priorities in education, research, knowledge transfer and the social impact of Computer Science.
In Portugal it has the following member institutions: Universidade do Porto (DEI/FEUP), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA LINCS) and Instituto Politécnico de Leiria (ESTG).
+ info on its projects and services.