Scotland is Blazing a Trail in Informatics
11 August 09
When it comes to informatics – the science of how natural and artificial systems process, store and communicate information – Scotland is blazing a trail.
While Edinburgh University’s School of Informatics is recognised as the largest and best in Europe, there are many other smaller centres of excellence in other universities across Scotland.
That’s why the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) has been created to help consolidate and develop Scotland's position as an international research leader in informatics and computer science.
Match funded by the Scottish Funding Council, ten universities will invest £29 million over five years to enhance their research capabilities, attract new academic staff and promote a world-leading international presence in the research field.
The partnership includes the universities of Aberdeen, Abertay Dundee, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Robert Gordon, St Andrews, Stirling and Strathclyde.
The formation of SICSA will create 37 new research posts and 20 new PhD posts per year and its ‘critical mass’ will help it attract funding from more sources.
SISCA Director Professor Jon Oberlander explained the benefits of the partnership:
“We have an enormous pool of informatics expertise in Scotland. If you think of what’s going on in Edinburgh – then double it for Scotland because there are many other universities that are doing great work in this area. “In Scotland, we have one of the five biggest top-quality research clusters in informatics and computer science in the world, with more than 200 world-class academic researchers. And in the UK about 16 per cent of the very best research output comes from Scotland."
“This cluster gives us critical mass in research pooling, which has given us access to more sources of European funding for our research.
“Extra funding is vital to our research capabilities. Our PHD students are the agents of change and it is only through the health of research that we will continue to lead in this area,” he added.
SISCA is also promoting a culture of entrepreneurialism and knowledge transfer among its researchers to help develop commercial potential of their work and has created Informatics Ventures to increase the economic impact of the huge amount of research and innovation coming out of Scotland.
It highlights this work through two annual events: ‘Lifting the lid’ which invites other researchers and enterprises to look for collaborative approaches to the research; and ‘Engage|Invest|Exploit’, a showcase for researchers to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists.
“Scotland’s informatics and computing researchers are already world leaders, facing up to the challenges of securing, interfacing, modelling and engineering the systems of tomorrow. Our new SISCA alliance builds on our strengths to catalyse innovative projects, and attract rising international stars – both researchers and students,” added Professor Oberlander.
More information:
University of Edinburgh School of Informatics
Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
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