European Forum for ICST

Next Meeting: European Forum for ICST !

• Date: October, 2012 (to be determined).
• Place: TBA.
• Chair: Jan van Leeuwen.
• Status: in preparation.
• Contact person:
  • Cristina Pereira (Secretary General of INFORMATICS EUROPE), email: cristina.pereira - at - informatics-europe.org

The Forum

• Coordinating committee:
  • M. Cosnard (ERCIM), K. Jeffery (ERCIM), F. Gagliardi (ACM Europe Council), C. Ghezzi (Informatics Europe) D. Laforenza (ERCIM), T. Margaria (EASST), B. Monien (EATCS), M. Shapiro (ACM Europe Council), P. Spirakis (EATCS, ACM Europe Council), M. van den Brand (EAPLS), P. van Roy (EAPLS), J. van Leeuwen (chair, Informatics Europe, EATCS, ACM Europe Council).
• Executive board:
  • J. van Leeuwen (president), K. Jeffery (vice-president), P. Spirakis (vice-president).
• Contact:
  • Cristina Pereira (Secretary General of INFORMATICS EUROPE), email: cristina.pereira - at - informatics-europe.org
  • to follow
• Origin:
  • The European Forum for Information and Communication Sciences and Technologies (ICST) was established on November 7th, 2011 in Milan by a joint action of seven leading organizations and societies in ICT in Europe. The Forum is intended to be an open platform for cooperation among the scientific ICT societies in Europe.
• Mission statement:
  • The development of common viewpoints and strategies for ICST in Europe and, whenever appropriate or needed, a common representation of these viewpoints and strategies at the international level.
• Milan Agreement.

Documents

• Forum, May 9/May 10, 2012 - Pisa (IIT)
  • Address: Institute for Informatics and Telematics, CNR Research Area, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi, 1 - 56124 Pisa.
  • Agenda.
  • New website: www.eficst.eu
  • Participants: M. Cosnard (ERCIM), F. Gagliardi (ACM Europe Council), R. Heckel (EASST), K. Jeffery (ERCIM), P. Kunz (ERCIM), D. Laforenza (ERCIM), T. Margaria (EASST), C. Pereira (Informatics Europe), M. Shapiro (ACM Europe Council), M.G.J. van den Brand (EAPLS), P. Van Roy (EAPLS), Jan van Leeuwen (Informatics Europe, EATCS, ACM Europe Council).
• Forum, February 2, 2012 - Paris (INRIA)
  • Address: 23 Avenue d'Italie, F 75213 Paris (the nearest metro station is "Place d'Italie").
  • Agenda.
  • Participants: J. Chailloux (ERCIM), M. Cosnard (ERCIM), F. Gagliardi (ACM Europe Council), K. Jeffery (ERCIM), C. Kirchner (ERCIM, observer), D. Laforenza (ERCIM), T. Margaria (EASST), B. Monien (EATCS), A. Petit (ERCIM), N. Scarabottolo (CEPIS), M. Shapiro (ACM Europe Council), M. van den Brand (EAPLS), P. van Roy (EAPLS), J. van Leeuwen (chair, Informatics Europe, EATCS, ACM Europe Council).
• Extended Panel, November 7, 2011 - Milano (ECSS 2011)
  • Agenda.
  • Milan agreement.
  • Participants: F. Gagliardi/J. White (ACM Europe Council), N. Scarabottolo (CEPIS), D. Laforenza (ERCIM), C. Ghezzi/Chr Choppy (Informatics Europe), M. van den Brand/P. van Roy (EAPLS), T. Margaria (EASST), B. Monien (EATCS), J. van Leeuwen (moderator, Informatics Europe, EATCS, and ACM Europe Council).
  • Convenor: Jan van Leeuwen.
• Extended Panel, Task Group 2011
  • Task Group report (2011)
• Extended Panel, March 17, 2011 - Brussels (CEPIS)
  • Agenda
  • Panel report
  • Convenor: Jan van Leeuwen.
• Project SMART 2009/0061 - ASM Market Research and Analysis / Apintech Ltd
           Role & Impact of Professional & Scientific Societies in ICT Research, Education and Innovation
  • ICT professional societies in Europe (project home)
  • Survey (ASM/Apintech, 2011)
  • Strategic options - position document (ASM/Apintech, 2011)
  • Workshop report (ASM/Apintech, 2011)
• ECSS 2010 - Prague
  • Panel report (JvL/Pereira, 2010)
  • Digital science and its impact on scientific societies (Accordino, 2010)
  • The role of learned societies in the digital age (Hall, 2010)
• EC Report 2008
  • ICT scientific societies at the dawn of the 21st century: which opportunities for Europe (2008)
    

Societies and organizations

Members European Forum for ICST
• ACM Europe (ACM Europe Council)
• European Association for Programming Languages and Systems (EAPLS)
• European Association of Software Science and Technology (EASST)
• European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS)
• European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM)
• INFORMATICS Europe (Informatics Europe)

Other Forums
• Digital Enlightenment Forum
• Digital Europe
• European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC)
• IST Advisory Group (ISTAG)
• Science Europe

General
• ICT societies in Europe (List of European and national societies)

Other links

EC
• DG Connect (Communications Networks, Content and Technology).
• Horizon 2020
  • Innovation Union - Key Initiatives
  • Information society
  • Digital Futures (2011)
• Research & Innovation
  • ICT Research & Innovation: a driver for growth
  • Digital agenda for Europe
  • Common Strategic Framework for future EU Research and Innovation Funding (Green paper)
• ICT research in FP 7
  • ICT - workprogramme 2013 (draft version V1).
• European Research Area (ERA).
  • Coordinating ICT Research across Europe.
  • European Research Council (ERC).
  • European Science Foundation (ESF).
  • European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)
• European e-Competence Framework

Institutions
• EIT ICT Labs
• European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
• European Technology Platforms (ETPs).
• Innovation Value Institute (IVI, Ireland)

Organizations
• European Universities Association (EUA)
• World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA)

Background

Europe has many professional and scientific societies in Informatics and, more generally, ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) or ICST (Information and Communication Science and Technology). There is a widespread realization that the Informatics/ICT community needs to join forces, not in the least at the European level.

At the European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2010) in Prague a special panel assessed the current situation of the scientific societies, with their strengths and weaknesses and their possible future evolution in "the changing landscape". Aiming to move from vision to action, the panellists from ACM Europe, CEPIS, EAI, ERCIM, EAPLS, EATCS and INFORMATICS EUROPE agreed to move a step forward in the discussion on the actual form, mission and realization of a "strong but low overhead" platform for cooperative activity among the ICST societies.

On March 17, 2011 at CEPIS in Brussels and convened by INFORMATICS EUROPE, the panel reconvened in extended form to discuss the options for an actual format for the cooperative activity among ICST societies and for possible concrete steps towards the creation of a platform that might realize the ideas that have been put forth, e.g as part of the ECSS 2010 Panel and the surveys of the SMART 2009/0061 project. After extensive discussions on the why and how of a platform organization, the panelists agreed that a platform should be formed, in the interest of the organizations present and the ICST field in general. The panel, however, made clear that a series of practical issues needed to be clarified before a platform could be brought to life, and resolved to have the matter studied further before any further definitive decisions.

The panel decided to form a Task Group to study and develop a blueprint for an "open" platform organization for closer contact and cooperation among the Informatics/ICT societies in Europe. The Task Group consists of the following members: V. Baltac (CEPIS), B. Bigalke (EAI), Chr. Choppy (Informatics Europe), K. Jeffery (ERCIM), M. Shapiro (ACM Europe), P. van Roy (EAPLS), and J. van Leeuwen (Informatics Europe and EATCS, moderator). The Task Group has reported to the extended panel in July 2011.

On November 7th 2011 and co-located with the European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2011) at the Politecnico di Milano, the Extended Panel met again for a final and concluding meeting. In this meeting the Extended Panel decided unanimously to establish the European Forum for ICST as a joint, open platform for further cooperation, as described in the blueprint report.