The University of Abertay is joining with several other leading Scottish universities to create a world leading informatics and computer science research alliance in Scotland.
The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and ten universities will together invest £29 million to create the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA).
SISCA will see the universities of Abertay, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Robert Gordon, St Andrews, Stirling and Strathclyde pooling their research excellence together.
The partnership will enable the universities of to enhance their research capabilities, attract new academic staff and promote a world-leading international presence in the research field.
Abertay will benefit directly from a £1 million research investment for their School of Computing and Creative Technologies. Head of School Lachlan MacKinnon said:
"Abertay University has been heavily involved with the development of this alliance. We are extremely enthusiastic about it and look forward to strengthening our collaborative work with other Scottish universities.
"At Abertay, we will be focusing on developing our mathematical modelling and visualisation work which concerns the ground breaking cancer pathways research, and will be continuing to expand our world-leading research into computer games technology."
Among its key areas of research, SICSA will be helping to create the 'next generation' of the internet, and developing new ways for people to interact with computers, beyond the traditional keyboard-mouse-monitor interface.
The formation of SICSA will create 37 new research posts and 20 new PhD posts per year. SICSA also aim to create a graduate academy offering advanced postgraduate training in research to attract and retain the best national and international research students.
Professor Jon Oberlander, Director of SICSA, said: "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 alliance builds on our strengths to catalyse innovative projects, and attract rising international stars - both researchers and students.
It's also designed to nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs, shaping our information society, our digital economy.
"We're delighted that the Scottish Funding Council is helping us collaborate to compete still more effectively."
Mark Batho, Chief Executive of SFC, commented on the award: "Scotland has an international reputation as a centre of excellence for computer science research, an area which is becoming increasingly important to all aspects of modern society. The pooling of resources with the creation of SICSA will enable world-leading research and attract some of the world's best researchers to deliver the computer systems of tomorrow.
"SICSA will strengthen Scotland’s economy as well as our reputation for research excellence. The next generation of computer and informatics development will play a key role in future global growth, and the creation of exciting new technologies will also assist other areas of research vital to the future of Scotland, and the wider world, such as medical research, environmental and marine science."