The Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) is a "research pool" funded by the Scottish Funding Council

Scottish Funding Council

The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council, more commonly known as the Scottish Funding Council , is the body in Scotland that distributes funding from the Scottish Government to the country's colleges and universities...

. A research pool is a collaboration of Scottish university departments whose broad objective is to create a coherent research community that will improve the quality of research carried out in Scotland in the pool-related discipline.

SICSA's goals are to improve the quality of research in informatics and computer science across universities in Scotland, to promote the transfer of research results to benefit companies and the public sector in Scotland and to create a university community that represents all aspects of Scottish Informatics and Computer Science.

SICSA was launched in December 2008 and is funded with an award of £14.5 million from the Scottish Funding Council with SICSA member universities providing matching funding. It is managed by the SICSA Executive which is composed of a Director of Research (who is also the SICSA Director), the Director of the SICSA Graduate Academy, the Director of Knowledge Transfer and the Director of Education.

Membership

SICSA has adopted an inclusive membership policy and all universities in Scotland that have computer science or informatics departments/schools are eligible to be members of SICSA. , the following departments/schools were SICSA members.

1. University of Aberdeen
   University of Aberdeen
   The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
   
   . Department of Computing Science
2. University of Abertay. School of Computing and Engineering Systems & Institute of Arts, Media and Computer Games
3. University of Dundee
   University of Dundee
   The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....
   
   . School of Computing
4. University of Edinburgh
   University of Edinburgh
   The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
   
   . School of Informatics
5. Edinburgh Napier University. Institute for Informatics & Digital Innovation
6. University of Glasgow
   University of Glasgow
   The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
   
   . School of Computing Science
7. Glasgow Caledonian University
   Glasgow Caledonian University
   Glasgow Caledonian University is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland.The university was constituted by an Act of Parliament on 1 April 1993 as a result of a merger between Glasgow Polytechnic and The Queen's College, Glasgow....
   
   . School of Engineering and Computing
8. Heriot-Watt University
   Heriot-Watt University
   Heriot-Watt University is a university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The name commemorates George Heriot, the 16th century financier to King James, and James Watt, the great 18th century inventor and engineer....
   
   . School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences
9. Robert Gordon University
   Robert Gordon University
   Robert Gordon University is located in Aberdeen, Scotland. Building on over 250 years involvement in education, it was granted university status in 1992. Robert Gordon University currently has approximately 16,407 students at its two campuses at Garthdee and the City Centre, studying on over 145...
   
   . School of Computing
10. University of St Andrews
    University of St Andrews
    The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
    
    . School of Computer Science
11. University of Stirling
    University of Stirling
    The University of Stirling is a campus university founded by Royal charter in 1967, on the Airthrey Estate in Stirling, Scotland.-History and campus development:...
    
    . Department of Computer Science and Mathematics
12. University of Strathclyde
    University of Strathclyde
    The University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, Scotland, is Glasgow's second university by age, founded in 1796, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university...
    
    . Department of Computer and Information Sciences
13. University of the West of Scotland. School of Computing

Research themes

SICSA’s research activities are organized around four broad research themes

• Next-generation Internet
• Complex Systems Engineering
• Modelling and Abstraction
• Multi-modal Interaction

Each research theme is managed by a theme leader and organizes workshops and events for the computer science research community across Scotland.

SICSA staff appointments

To help achieve its goal of improving research quality, SICSA has funded the appointment of 30 academic staff across Scottish universities. Appointments have been made in Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Stirling, Strathclyde, Abertay and Aberdeen Universities.

The SICSA Graduate Academy

The SICSA Graduate Academy (SGA) is an international graduate school in informatics and computer science. It provides funding for PhD students, supports graduate training and summer schools and runs a Distinguished Visitor scheme which supports visits from distinguished computer scientists to Scotland. The SGA runs an annual conference for all PhD students working in computer science and informatics in Scotland.

SICSA Prize studentships

SICSA has made available 80 prize studentships for PhD study in Scotland to students from around the world, with the aim of attracting the research leaders of the future to work in Scotland.

SICSA summer schools

SICSA provides support for PhD students in Scotland to attend international summer school and sponsors up to 3 international summer schools per year for PhD students in Scotland. Nine summer schools have been sponsored in Scottish universities between June 2009 and September 2011.

SICSA Distinguished Visitor Scheme

The aim of the SICSA Distinguished Visitor scheme is to provide support for excellent researchers from around the world to interact with the Scottish Computer Science and Informatics research community.

Interaction with industry

SICSA interacts extensively with local industry in Scotland with a view to transferring technology and informing the industrial community of informatics and computer science research in Scotland. An annual "Demofest" is organized that showcases Scottish University research. Specific projects with industry are concerned with smart tourism and migrating high-value software services to the cloud..

Computer science education

Uniquely amongst the SFC research pools, SICSA has extended its remit to include education as well as research. The aim of this move is to allow SICSA to become the single representative body for all aspects of university informatics/computer science research and education in Scotland.

SICSA maintains information about undergraduate and postgraduate taught courses in Scotland for potential students and provides information for industry on opportunities for graduate recruitment.