1. Informatics School Overview

2. Key Facts UK Research Assessment Exercise: 69% more world leading research than nearest competitor 44% more world leading + internationally excellent 10% of all UK world leading research Staff and students: 90 Academic staff 150 Postdoc researchers 280 PhD students 215 Masters level students 450 Undergraduates (approx. 200 in 1 st year) Teaching awards in 2010: Voted Best School in EUSA poll of over 3000 students) Top in Guardian League table for teaching excellence Research spend ≈ £10M Non-research spend ≈ £9M

3. Foundations for a new science The science of information – how natural and artificial systems process, store and communicate information A fundamental science underpinning all areas of life - Academic, Industrial and Social. Encompasses sub-disciplines such as Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science This broad view of informatics is necessary because: Big technological problems are multi-disciplinary Big societal problems demand integrative science

4. Formation of the School Computer Science Cognitive Science Artificial Intelligence AIAI HCR C LFCS Departments LFCS School ICCS ICSA IPAB ANC CISA AIAI HCR C ITO Grad. School Theory of computation Computer systems Brain and learning Language and cognition Robotics and vision Knowledge and agents Research Admin

5. Institute Statistics

6. Interdisciplinary Centres Centre for Speech Technology Research Centre for Neuroscience Research Digital Curation Centre Institute for System Level Integration Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre National e-Science Centre Centre for Numerical Algorithms and Intelligent Software Centre for Systems Biology at Edinburgh Informatics Linguistics Law Engineering Physics Biology Medicine Maths

7. Teaching Informatics 1Maths 1Additional Informatics 2Maths 2Additional 3 rd year modules 4 th year modules Honours thesis 1 year MSc 4 year Honours UG Strategic issues: Continuing to raise quality (admitted and graduated) Engagement with other disciplines in teaching Change in demands on course structure Change in expectations of those being educated Developing the “computational thinking” ethos

8. Head of School TeachingComputingResearchGrad School Deputy Teaching HRCommercialisationKM & Outreach Directors Senior DoS Directors of studies Directors of studies Course organisers Course organisers PG selectors PG selectors Curriculum/QA UG selectors UG selectors Top-level management is via a board of directors: Directors of research oversee our major research initiatives. Director of computing provides academic oversight of computing support. Director of staff recruitment & development oversees our HR activities. Director of graduate school oversees our graduate school activities. Director of commercialisation coordinates our commercial activities. Director of teaching develops teaching strategy and oversees the ITO academic team Director of knowledge management coordinates information management Academic Management

9. Chief Administrator Head of ITO Commercialisation and Outreach ITO IGS Commercialisation and outreach Commercialisation and outreach Head of Computing Computing support Computing support Head of School HR Institute front-offices Top-level management responsible for support groups divided by function. Front-offices service provided by: Research front-offices providing day-to-day support on floors of the Forum. IGS office for PG research students ITO office for taught course students Back-office research, finance and HR services brought together. Portfolio teams within research grouping maintain familiarity with subgroups of researchers (e.g. institutes). Graduate School and ITO brought together. Commercialisation and outreach support combined. Deputy Chief Administrator (research) Research and finance Deputy Chief Administrator (teaching) Portfolio teams School office School office Administrative/Computing Management

10. TeachingComputingResearchGrad SchoolHR CommercialisationKM Academic/Commercial Directors Deputy Chief Administrator (teaching) Deputy Chief Administrator (reasearch) Commercialisation & Outreach Administrative/Computing Directors Computing Each academic director has a counterpart in the support organisation. This is the top-level interface between academic and support groups. A top-level support director runs the administration of each of the main School committees. Planning & Resources Computing committee Teaching committee Board of Studies Grad School committee Institute committees Outreach committee Head of SchoolChief Administrator Top-Level Committee Structure

11. Member of staff ITO IGS Commercialisation and outreach HR School office Institute front-office Research portfolio team Computing commercial contracts public engagement day-to-day support accommodation computing issues computing advice course admin issues DoS support research student admin research student recruitment research project support financial aspects of research issues for Head of School issues for Chief Administrator development support work permits etc. Staff Perspective

12. Recruitment and Promotion Recruitment Process: The School maintains a list of strategic areas for recruitment. Currently these are: cognitive science; computer networks; computer vision; data intensive research; large scale knowledge systems; operating systems; software engineering Strategic areas are aligned to the opportunity when funding becomes available All academic posts are advertised in open competition Promotion and career development: Annual appraisal for all staff For academic staff, an issue is progression to Professor For research staff, an issue is competing for academic posts Startup company route is becoming much more common

13. Workload Typical workload: 1.5 lecture courses (30 lectures) per year 2 tutorial groups (20 tutorials) per year 3 PhD students in steady state (1 new student per year) 3 MSc student projects 1 Honours UG project 1 significant research grant Allocating duties: Aim for typical workload for everyone Adjust individual components depending on specific case Effort not quantified but allocation to duties is public Wide variation in specific cases

14. Broader Initiatives, Now Mature Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance: A Scottish research pooling initiative Involves Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews as core with (almost) all Scottish universities as partners Funded 10 new academic staff in Informatics Funds 20 PhD students across SICSA (competition) ProspeKT and Informatics Ventures: Funds entrepreneurial training and events Funds Business Development executives who work with institutes Brings in advisors and mentors from MIT/Stanford, etc.

15. Examples of New Initiatives Pump priming activities: iDEAlab College workshops Strategic activities: FET-Flagships CS Doctoral Training Centre Outreach activities: Design-Informatics e-Research

16. Funding Climate

17. Change in UK Funding Landscape RAE 2001RAE 2008 UK RCs103249 EU57106 Industry3847 Increase in government research funding to UK computing research departments over previous 10 years (values in £M) Sharp decrease in UK research council funding expected post-2010. Effects at EPSRC probably will be: Reduction in “responsive mode” research funding Focus on thematic research Clawback of some existing funding UK government approach to funding is likely to become “absorptive” and for clear economic gain. Strong possibility that cap on teaching fees charged for UK undergraduates may be raised/abolished.

18. Sources of Research Funding

19. Application Volume v Success Rate

20. Staff Profile

21. Academic Strategy Defend the core Target timely areas Encourage more “systems” Produce T-shaped students Increase social engagement Help UK funders to support theory Support theory integrators inside School Develop shared strategies with funders Develop shared themes with other Schools Influence large UK/EU systems challenges Encourage systems designers in School Develop Design-Informatics Centre Extend existing entrepeneurial initiative Engage more strongly with social challenges Make our teaching more outward facing

22. Structural/Administrative Issues Make research administration run more effectively by consolidating Informatics Research Organisation. Strengthen our policy of recruiting and retaining only the most talented staff in strategic areas (especially in emerging areas) by planning strategic appointments to a 3-year horizon, focusing on “new blood” junior appointments. Develop support for long term career development of research funded staff, through better mentoring and review. Ensure that institutes remain lightweight administratively, and find ways to make the institute structure more fluid without breaking the social groupings.