This landmark event was a joint undertaking of the Computer Science departments of the two branches of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology: EPFL (Lausanne) and ETH (Zurich).

Besides the keynotes, talks, panels and workshops, the result of the summit was the unanimous view that European computer scientists needed an organisation with aims and scope similar to those of the CRA in the US, extended—in light of the situation in Europe—to cover education as well as research.

As a result, Informatics Europe was created with the aim to become the recognized voice of the European computer science community, including both universities and research centres.

They do so by addressing strategic matters and emerging trends in informatics and related fields, fostering unity in the variety of their member institutions, and promoting pan-European collaboration.

While some are exclusive to members (and researchers affiliated with those institutes), others are open to the broader informatics and related disciplines community.

The focus on Informatics, and the central role played by data curation makes it unique, reliable and relevant.

The workshop is a unique networking forum for leaders of Informatics institutions and research groups, and focuses on concrete issues and practical solutions.

The evaluation is conducted by internationally recognized researchers in the field and is supervised by the Informatics Europe Executive Committee.