Why and How to Join

The main reason that brings institutions to join Informatics Europe is the belief that a united and strong European Informatics Research and Education community is needed. But Informatics Europe membership also carries tangible benefits. Please keep reading for a summary of them per membership type, or download an extended version here.

Academic Institutions, Public and Private Research Labs, and Companies

Becoming an IE member elevates your institute’s visibility and recognition as a supporter and active shaper of our mission. It also contributes to your organization’s continued improvement, through knowledge exchange, best practice sharing, eased access to talent and enhanced pan-European visibility of its researchers and research outcomes.

Membership is institutional and extends to all faculty of your department/faculty or researchers of your Lab/company. You are all welcome to take full advantage of being part of a large and influential community:

• Be recognized as part of the growing body of institutions that are raising the voice of Informatics in Europe.
• Bring forward your institution's interests, gain visibility, and influence decision-making on important Informatics agenda topics at the European level. Beyond year-round IE activities, hosting ECSS and co-chairing related sessions is reserved to members.
• Learn directly from the experience of your peers, and exchange insights and best practices with academic, technology, and policy leaders at our events or working groups.
• Participate in the Working Groups of Informatics Europe to shape strategic priorities such as Europe-wide data collection on Informatics education in Europe, Informatics education and curricula in schools in Europe, Open Science, Societal Impact of Informatics or its EU visibility.
• Submit agenda topics and participate as an observer in Informatics Europe Board meetings.
• Nominate candidates to the Informatics Europe Board of Directors.
• Gain instant access to reports and Europe-wide benchmarking data on key academic parameters, providing invaluable arguments in discussions with university management, government authorities, or funding bodies.
• Publish open positions free of charge in the Informatics Job Platform, dedicated to research and academic positions in the field.
• Find PhD candidates in our CV Repository and offer your students and recent graduates international job and internship possibilities.
• Benefit of a discount at Informatics Europe events and services (incl. ECSS and Department EvaluationDepartment Evaluation)

We have an affordable annual Membership-fee scheme for academic and public research lab members taking into consideration the department/institution size and national GDP (see below, under types of memberships).

National Informatics Associations

The main benefit for the National Informatics Associations (NIAs) members of Informatics Europe is to bring forward and represent the consensual national view in European discussions while contributing national debates with the outcomes produced by the Informatics Europe community. In particular, the executive and management board of NIAs are invited to represent the interests of their national associations as follows:

• participating in our Working Groups;
• participating in the Policy Recommendations Working Group, which is  open to representatives of NIAs only;
• bringing forward topics to be discussed during one of the sessions of ECSS (NIAs workshop) and collaborating in its organization;
• acting as ambassadors to strengthen and shape the informatics education and research community in Europe, as well as in their respective countries;
• joining ECSS at IE-members’ discount rates;
• accessing IE members-only reports;
• nominating themselves as Informatics Europe Board of Directors candidates.

NIAs benefits are not extensive to their members. Institutions affiliated with a given NIA are invited to apply individually to join Informatics Europe and benefit from the Academic Institution benefits (see above).

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Additionally, all the new members of a given year are invited to a 'New Members Only' get-together with IE representatives. This meeting takes place in connection with the ECSS and aims at identifying common interests as well as the best collaboration patterns with our new members. 

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Membership is institutional and open to: 

• academic faculties or departments of Informatics, Computer Science, Computing, IT, ICT,
• research laboratories (public or private) in Informatics, Computer Science, Computing, IT, ICT,
• national and international associations in Informatics, Computer Science, Computing, IT, ICT,
• industrial organisations interested in these topics.

All membership applications will be analyzed by the Membership Committee, which will provide a motivated recommendation to the Informatics Europe Board on accepting or declining each application based on the following evaluation criteria.

 Evaluation criteria for academic members:

1. Level of education in Informatics (also known as Computer Science or Computing), with as minimal requirements:
   • Be accredited in the country as a tertiary education institution, and
   • Have a study program related to Informatics at the Master's or Doctoral level.
2.  Level of research in Informatics, with minimal requirements: 
   • Having permanent staff actively engaged in research, and
   • Publications in recognized research venues.
3. Situation of the national scenario of tertiary education. 
4. Role of the requesting institution in the national context.

Evaluation criteria for public/private research laboratories: 

1. Actively conduct research in Informatics (also known as Computer Science or Computing), with as minimal requirements:
   
   • Having permanent staff actively engaged in Informatics research, and
   • Publications in recognized research venues related to Informatics.
2.  Actively participate in research activity with: 
   • National/international academic institutions, or
   • European research institutions or companies.
3. Willingness to actively support Informatics Europe activities.

Evaluation criteria for national associations:

National Associations are networks of university departments and/or individuals in Informatics/ Computer Science/ Computing and related fields who have the mission to actively represent the national informatics community in a European country on matters directly related to Informatics Research and Education (e.g. policy formulation/implementation, domain representation, lobbying).

Evaluation criteria for industrial organizations:

1. Engaged in product/services development related to Information Technology, with as minimal requirements:
   
   • Being engaged in activities that require academically-trained informatics staff at Master/PhD level, and
   • Being engaged in R&D activities leveraging advances in the field of Informatics.
2.  Willingness to actively support Informatics Europe activities.

Corporate organizations, foundations and other institutions who do not fulfil the above criteria but do share an interest in our mission and are wishing to support the Informatics research community in Europe are welcome to explore our sponsoring possibilities

Membership Committee: 

• Kim Mens, Informatics Europe Board Member
• Lenuta Alboaie, Informatics Europe Board Member
• Nuria Anguera, Informatics Europe Executive Director

When necessary the Membership Committee will include, additionally, one or two country experts.

Become a Member  

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As of 1 January 2022, the following membership fee scheme applies. This scheme has been approved by Informatics Europe members at the 2021 AGA to better accommodate the range in department/faculty sizes and to reflect current economic parameters within Europe. Memberships are collected once per year.

New members joining throughout a given year contribute with the complete annual fee. Those registering between July and October benefit from a complimentary registration to our annual ECSS conference (one individual per institution). New members joining after ECSS (late October) are charged a pro-rata amount for the remaining days of the current year, together with the following year's invoice. 

Academic Membership & Public Research Labs Membership

Two factors determine the annual membership fee for academic as well as for public research labs members : 

• Country zone:  based on national GDP per capita, PPP (current international $). 
• Size: number of permanent informatics FTE Faculty* teaching and doing research at the member institution (department/school/faculty/institute)

Institution Size (FTE Faculty)	Zone 0 (GDP > 65K)	Zone 1 (GDP 65 - 50K)	Zone 2 (GDP 50 - 33K)	Zone 3 (GDP  < 33K)
Small (≤ 15)	EUR 1,575	EUR 1,150	EUR 850	EUR 575
Medium (16 ≤ 24)	EUR 2,200	EUR 1,675	EUR 1,150	EUR 850
Large (≥ 25)	EUR 2,950	EUR 2,300	EUR 1,675	EUR 1,150

*Permanent faculty members refer to individuals, such as professors, lecturers, and researchers, whose position does not have a predefined end date. For our purposes, positions on tenure-track schemes (or similar) are considered permanent. Non-academic staff is not considered faculty

Country zone mapping is based on the latest World Bank GDP per capita data (2022).

• Zone 0: Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland.
• Zone 1: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Sweden, United Kingdom.
• Zone 2: Andorra, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey.
• Zone 3: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine.

Federated Membership

Federated members represent a grouping of up to five academic/research institutions that can apply for this type of membership to overcome the financial limitations of small institutions if they share a common geographical or cultural denominator.

• The Federation has one vote at the Annual General Assembly.
• All of its members receive the same access to resources, services, and benefits as regular members

Membership fee: See table above. For federated members, the FTE Faculty count is the sum of the Faculty numbers in each institution forming the federation. Should federated members wish to receive individual invoices for their share of the membership, 50 EUR per extra invoice will be charged. For more details, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

National Informatics Associations Membership

National Associations of Informatics institutions (alone or mixed with individuals) are considered large academic members in their respective country zones. The membership fee of National Informatics Associations of academic members is waived when over ⅓ of all potential academic members join Informatics Europe as direct members.

Two factors determine the annual membership fee for National Associations of individuals:

• Country zone: based on national GDP per capita, PPP (current international $)
• Size: number of members

NIA Size (# members / GDP pc)	Zone 0 (GDP > 65K)	Zone 1 (GDP 65 - 50K)	Zone 2 (GDP 50 - 33K)	Zone 3 (GDP  < 33K)
Small (< 250)	EUR 1’150	EUR 850	EUR 575	EUR 350
Medium (250 < 500)	EUR 1’575	EUR 1’150	EUR 850	EUR 575
Large (500 < 750)	EUR 2’200	EUR 1’675	EUR 1’150	EUR 850
Very large (≥ 750)	EUR 2’950	EUR 2’300	EUR 1’675	EUR 1’150

Associate Membership

Associate members are organisations with which Informatics Europe collaborates. Associate members do not vote, do not participate in committee chairmanship, and do not have full access to all resources.

Membership fee: Between 500 EUR and 5,000 EUR, depending on organization's size and country (decided by the Informatics Europe Membership Committee). 

Candidates for Associate membership are kindly requested to write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. briefly explaining the reasons for their expression of interest, in particular their fit with our mission and goals. 

Industrial Membership

Private laboratories and industrial organizations. Benefits are the same as for academic members. 

Total industrial dues are established by the Board membership committee taking into account the company size and its internal workings. Total dues combine a minimum membership fee of 3.500 EUR/year with the support to concrete IE initiatives, but do not include customized services for a given member.  For further information please contact our executive director This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Become a Member  

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The Membership Committee, assisted when necessary by national experts, will examine your membership application with respect to the four evaluation criteria mentioned above and provide a motivated recommendation to the Board of Informatics Europe which will decide about your Membership. Please note that the process may take some weeks and we could contact you for further documentation proving the eligibility to become our member.

Once your membership application is approved by the Board of Informatics Europe, our staff will be back to you with further information about your membership and payment details.

Candidates for Associate membership are kindly requested to write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. briefly explaining the reasons for their expression of interest, in particular their fit with our mission and goals. 

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Growth

Informatics Europe's origins are linked to the first ECSS (European Computer Science Summit), a call by the Informatics Department of ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne (Switzerland) to all European peers in 2005. In two years the organization reached 45 members, since then the net annual growth rate in terms of membership is 9%.

                   

We are still a youthful organization, steadily expanding with untapped potential for growth!

Members Ranking

Nine of the first ten universities offering Informatics studies in Europe, according to QS ranking 2023, belong to Informatics Europe. The QS World University Ranking evaluates universities worldwide across various disciplines.

Research Reach

To ensure a comprehensive representation of European researchers at the earliest opportunity, the organization initially prioritized contacts with prestigious large Informatics departments and labs (counting more than 25 permanent faculty or researchers). Today, over 70% of our members still belong to this category. 

                    

We are currently working on reaching a balanced representation of small and medium institutions as well, in the interest of diversity and to truly represent the community at large. The number of institutions counting less than 25 faculty or researchers is thus steadily increasing.

All in all, Informatics Europe represents some 50’000 informatics researchers.*

*Assuming an average of 7 people per research group and 10, 20, 50 research groups for small, medium respectively large institutions.

Teaching Reach

In terms of informatics students’ population in Europe, we estimate having a direct impact on at least half a million students. While we work on collecting exact data from our members, this is our best estimate for bachelors, masters, and PhDs studying at our member institutions.

Geographical Reach

Informatics Europe represents the academic and research community in Informatics in Europe and neighbouring countries. Our membership currently encompasses more than 30 countries, covering 75% of the targeted country reach:

                         

Informatics Europe fees are determined in terms of the purchasing power of our members, who are divided into 4 zones depending on their national GDP per capita, PPP. At present lower-income countries are underrepresented in our membership base, but we are working to change this. Having a more balanced representation of our Board of Directors from each of these 4 zones is also part of our strategy, and for that we are trying to include more board members from zone 3.

                   

Zone 0: Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland; Zone 1: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Sweden, United Kingdom;  Zone 2: Andorra, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey;  Zone 3: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine.

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