Call for Participation

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ECSS 2020 - 16th European Computer Science Summit  

“Diversity in Informatics Research and Education”

26 – 28 October 2020, Online Event

With an opening speech by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.

Registration Deadline 15 October 2020

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The European Computer Science Summit (ECSS) is the meeting place for anyone interested in issues of research, education and policy in Informatics.

For the first time in its sixteen years of history, ECSS is going to be a fully online event, the result of the Covid-19 health crisis that affected the whole continent and changed our way of living, working, networking and socializing.

While we understand the power of personal contact for effective networking, and ECSS is above all a networking event, we also see a unique opportunity in creating a space of discussion and learning from peers that can be much more pervasive. We hope that bringing ECSS to your offices and home-offices we will be able to reach more members in each member department, creating more interest to our activities and inspiring people to take action and participate in Informatics Europe activities and being more active at the European level.

The 16th edition - ECSS 2020 - will be held via Zoom, 26-28 October 2020. The conference will consist of the main Summit of three days composed of several complementary online events and sessions.

We are proud to announce that the conference will be opened on Monday, 26 October, with a speech by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. She will be opening the first session, on the topic Informatics Education, of the Workshop for Leaders of Informatics Research and Education. The session will include also presentations and discussions on the Informatics for All initiative and the European Commission Digital Education Action Plan.

The following sessions of the Leaders Workshop will focus on the central theme: “Post-Pandemic Ways for Learning and Researching in Informatics”. It will feature sessions in which renowned speakers will share their expertise with the audience in a webinar-style including virtual breakout rooms for a deeper Q&A.

On the morning of 27 October, two high-profile keynote speakers, Ewan Birney Director from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory - European Bioinformatics Institute and Vivian Lagesen from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology will be addressing two different aspects of “Diversity in Informatics Research and Education”, interdisciplinarity and gender balance. The session will be highly interactive, allowing attendees to pose questions and discuss with the speakers.

The afternoon session on 27 October will include presentations by the winners of the two Informatics Europe Annual Awards, Best Practices in Education and Minerva Informatics Equality. Rounding up Tuesday’s program a Dialogue with Members Session including the Informatics Europe Annual General Assembly will take place, where key topics of relevance to the community and the development of the organisation will be actively discussed.   

The ECSS 2020 closes on Wednesday, 28 October, with two special workshops:

In the morning, the National Associations Workshop on "Interdisciplinarity and Informatics" will address how the increasing emphasis on interdisciplinarity in science affects the Informatics community in different European countries.

Closing the ECSS 2020, the WIRE Workshop will take place joining together Academia, Industry and Policy (European Commission) for an afternoon debate dedicated to the key topic of gender diversity in Informatics research and education.

 The advanced conference schedule is available on the ECSS 2020 website.

 Opening Keynote Speaker:

• Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth

Keynote Speakers:

• Ewan Birney, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - European Bioinformatics Institute
• Georgi Dimitrov, European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture
• Paola Inverardi, University of L’Aquila
• Vivian Anette Lagesen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• Arosha K. Bandara, The Open University 
• Bashar Nuseibeh, The Open University & Lero, University of Limerick
• Martin Zachariasen, IT University of Copenhagen

Registration

Registrations are open until 15 October 2020.

Benefit for Informatics Europe Members: We will grasp the opportunity of the online format and have a special offer for Departments members of Informatics Europe. For member departments we will have a departmental registration, i.e. one paid registration per department allowing multiple members (Faculty, Researchers, Postdocs, PhD Students) of that department to attend the event simultaneously without paying individual fees.

For the details of the fees and how to register please visit our registration page.

 About ECSS

ECSS conferences are devoted to important and timely strategic issues and trends regarding all aspects of Informatics, including research, education, entrepreneurship, funding, career development, management and policies. The key audience includes:

• Heads (deans, chairs) of academic Informatics (Computer Science, Computing, IT, ICT) departments (schools, faculties, institutes);
• Research directors and managers of research centres, institutes and laboratories, both in public institutions and in the industry;
• Faculty members and researchers from both academia and industry;
• Members of funding and governmental agencies at European, national, regional and local level;
• Experts, advisors and thinkers of numerous key issues like ethics, the relation between Informatics and other sciences, the discipline’s future and its influence on the academic world and society.