ECSS 2024 Closing Statement: celebrating 20 years and looking ahead
As we conclude the 20th European Informatics Leaders Summit (ECSS 2024) in Malta, we are filled with pride and a renewed sense of purpose, celebrating this year’s achievements and the legacy of two decades of building a unified voice for the European Informatics research and education community.
Informatics Europe has grown from an ambitious vision shared at the inaugural ECSS in 2005 to a thriving association of over 180 institutions, driven by passionate volunteers who have championed numerous initiatives that underscore Informatics' value and its distinct scientific identity in Europe. This year’s celebration honoured these collective efforts and served as a forward-looking platform to discuss the challenges and priorities shaping the future of our field.
ECSS 2024 highlights include a Community Corner and panel discussions with several past IE presidents, where we reflected on Informatics Europe’s consistent advocacy for impactful policies and initiatives that strengthen the discipline. Our Higher Education Data Portal, now covering extensive data from 23 European countries, has evolved from a static report to a robust and internationally recognised data platform. Our pioneering contributions to gender equality include the Minerva Informatics Equality Award—celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2025—and the recently concluded EUGAIN COST Action, which received excellent official evaluations in all aspects. Pioneering were also our recommendation on machine learning, back in 2018. Our decade-long work with the ACM Europe Council has proudly contributed to the “Recommendation on improving the provision of digital skills and competences”, approved in November 2023 by the Council of the European Union. The recognition highlights Informatics’ crucial role in primary and secondary education and marks the official inclusion of the term “Informatics” in the European political discourse. Recent achievements, including the second edition of the Best Dissertation Award — rewarding exceptional and societally engaged Informatics research — or the positive conclusion of Europe’s first Informatics Education Research Summer School exemplify our dedication to advancing high-quality responsible Informatics in Europe. These milestones were applauded at this year’s ECSS.
Building upon our legacy, ECSS 2024 focused on the future of Informatics Europe and the discipline. Discussions addressed critical challenges and priorities, like the pressure of bureaucracy, lack of long-term strategies and insufficient funding on universities’ traditional role as breakthrough innovation centres. We also discussed Informatics’ growing impact on multidisciplinary research and the responsibility of the education and research community for its societal impacts. Both senior and early-career researchers identified areas for improvement in PhD support and general research evaluation. Slides and summaries of each ECSS 2024 session, along with photos from the event, are available online here.
Concrete outcomes of these discussions include several forthcoming publications: a report on interdisciplinary collaboration, resulting from our Leaders Workshop; a best practices guide for academia-industry partnerships, led by the Education Research WG; a framework on the responsible use of AI in Informatics education, with the support of IE member National Informatics Associations. In addition, the revised recommendations on research evaluation will incorporate community feedback and be published in early 2025, with a focus on fair evaluation of interdisciplinary and open science contributions. Ongoing initiatives shared by our Green ICT and Diversity & Inclusion working groups will further support our commitment to high-quality, socially responsible Informatics education and research in Europe.
We invite our community to explore Informatics Europe’s past and present activities, share our outcomes widely, and engage in ongoing initiatives with the same passion and resilience that have driven our success thus far. Join us next year at ECSS in Rennes (France) on October 27-29, 2025. Until then, let us continue to strengthen our community, advance shared priorities, and drive impactful policy and collaboration in Informatics education and research across Europe.
With heartfelt appreciation,
Informatics Europe Board of Directors