The Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Strathclyde University is taking a role in a £29m initiative to create an informatics and computer science research collaboration in Scotland.
Ten universities - Strathclyde, Aberdeen, Abertay Dundee, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Robert Gordon, St Andrews and Stirling - are all pooling their research in the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA), with the aim of enhancing their research capabilities.
A 50 per cent investment offer of £14.5m from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) is being matched by the partner institutions over five years.
Strathclyde's project is worth nearly £2m, with £885,000 coming from the SFC.
The investment funds two academic posts, a post-doctoral research fellow and four PhD studentships.
The academic posts have already been filled by Dr Dmitri Roussinov and Dr Eva Hornecker, both of whom joined CIS in September.
Three CIS researchers - head of department, professor Maria Fox, professor Derek Long and Dr Ian Ruthven - will be exploring multi-modal interaction, one of SICSA's main themes, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence.
They will be joined by professor Ivan Andonovic of Strathclyde's Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, who will be helping to develop another of the themes - the next generation of the internet.
This project will see SICSA developing ways for people to interact with computers, beyond the traditional keyboard-mouse-monitor interface.
SICSA also aims to create a graduate academy, offering advanced postgraduate training in research to attract and retain the best national and international research students.
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