<p class="imp-signature"><!--begin_signature--><!--end_signature--></p><font face="Calibri">Dear colleague,</font>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri"><span>I am writing this message as President
of Informatics Europe (IE) for the term 2012-2014. I would like to take some of
your time to give you a brief account of the organization and its initiatives<a name="_GoBack"></a>. Informatics Europe (IE) is the Research and Education
Organization of Computer Science and IT Departments in Europe. It was created
because of the crucial need for an organization that would enable all of us in
Europe, facing similar problems, to have a common voice for the discipline. Its
members are not individuals but institutions: CS/informatics/IT departments of
universities, as well as academic and industrial research labs.<span> </span></span>IE membership extends all across
Europe: there are currently 61 academic members and 4 from industry (Google,
Intel, Microsoft Research, and Springer Verlag). This is a good start, but the
association's strength directly depends on the number of members. </font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">IE's Web site (http://www.informatics-europe.org)
is the organization's gateway. I kindly urge you to spend some time browsing
through the information collected there to get your own view of the
organization, its mission, and its services to the members. I am sure you will
be surprised by what has been achieved over the past few years and even more so
by the potential for future growth.</font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">If your institution is already a
member of IE, please consider this message as a call for participation and
active involvement. Being part of IE gives you a real chance of contributing to
the community effort on establishing shared policies regarding informatics. Don't
hesitate to get in touch with me or any member of the Executive Board to
propose initiatives, recommend actions, and offer contributions. </font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">If your institution is not a
member yet, this message is a warm invitation to consider joining. Your
participation would be of utmost strategic importance because it will strengthen
the position and the authoritativeness of the CS European community. It<strong> </strong>is
really important that as many universities and labs as possible join so that IE
can represent the entire community and make a difference. What the association
can do depends on how many members it has. <span>The IE Web site provides all the information you need to join. The IE
Board would really like to hear from you, also about possible concerns you
might have.</span></font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">Last, I would like to single out a
few IE initiatives, out of the several we are especially proud of. </font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">Evaluation is becoming a very hot
issue. Research and education institutions are increasingly asked to
participate in evaluation exercises, both within their host organizations,
nationally, and internationally. IE can voice an authoritative opinion to
represent <span>CS/informatics/IT departments</span>. A first milestone in this
direction is the IE report on how to evaluate Informatics research, which was
published in Communication of the ACM (April 2009). This document is already
exerting its influence on various national evaluation systems. More initiatives
on evaluation are in progress; others need volunteers' efforts to move on. From
2012 IE will have in its operational phase the <a href="http://www.informatics-europe.org/services/department-evaluation.html">Department
Evaluation</a> initiative offering assessment of research quality in <span>CS/informatics/IT
departments</span>.</font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">Another initiative is the annual <a href="http://www.informatics-europe.org/ecss.html">European Computer Science
Summit</a>, which has become the reference European forum for the debate of
timely strategic issues of research, education and policy in Informatics. In
2012 the 8th ECSS will take place in Barcelona from 19-21 of November to unite
again department heads, deans, research laboratory directors, professors and
other opinion leaders in informatics throughout Europe. The association also
organizes the <a href="http://www.informatics-europe.org/services/curriculum-award.html">Informatics
Europe Curriculum Award</a> that recognizes outstanding educational initiatives
in different areas of Informatics. It has recently made available to the community
an extensive archive of <a href="http://www.informatics-europe.org/services/research-education-directory.html">European
Research & Education Institutions</a> and a specialized forum for the
advertisement of job opportunities in the field through the <a href="http://www.informatics-europe.org/services/informatics-jobs-service.html">Informatics
Jobs Service</a>. </font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">I am very proud to act as President
of a vibrant organization like IE and I am especially excited by the potential
of growth I clearly envision for the coming years. You can help make this vision
a reality!</font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">I look forward to hearing from
you. Please feel free contact me, any member of the Board, or our
Secretary-General Dr. Cristina Pereira (cristina.pereira@informatics-europe.org)
for any issues concerning IE.</font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">With my best regards,</font></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">Prof. Carlo Ghezzi (President,
Informatics Europe)</font></p>