Cyprus Chief Scientist and Secretary General of DCO discuss the maturity of the Research and Innovation ecosystem in Cyprus
02/07/2024
The Chief Scientist for Research, Innovation, and Technology of the Republic of Cyprus, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) Mr. Demetris Skourides, had the honor of hosting H.E. Ms. Deemah AlYahya, Secretary General of the Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) at the premises of the RIF. The Saudi delegation was accompanied by the Permanent Secretary of the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Mr. George Komodromos and members of his team, while from the RIF, the Director General of the Research Innovation Foundation, Mr. Theodoros Loukaidis and members of the Chief Scientist Office also attended.
Mr. Skourides welcomed H.E. Ms. Deemah AlYahya, and introduced the Cyprus Research & Innovation ecosystem, elaborating further on the National Research & Innovation strategy. Mr. Skourides explained the driving factors, tools and policies that have propelled Cyprus to the No 10 position in the European Innovation Scoreboard and 28th globally in the Global Innovation Index. The Chief Scientist emphasized the strong foundation that has been laid to help the Research & Innovation ecosystem scale. Mr. Demetris Skourides provided an in-depth overview of how capital, talent, and resources contribute to the competitive advantage that Cyprus has, and shared how the ecosystem has taken strategic options to enhance the build-up of skills and resources required for the future.
During his keynote, the Chief Scientist highlighted that Nasa’s Chief Scientist visit to Cyprus in 2018, as part of a Space Apps challenge, has inspired the community to invest in the space economy. The story of Ms Eleni Haritonos, Cyprus 1st woman who applied for Nasa internship, has been instrumental in inspiring other researchers in Cyprus.
The Chief Scientist shared that despite the size of the island, the sheer will of the scientific and research community is impressive, also highlighting how the Cyprus team “Brute Force” won Nasa’s Space Apps 2022 competition award. The strength of the talent is far reaching across the 12 universities, over 20 research organizations with the Chief scientist also highlighting two examples from the Neapolis University of Pafos, which competed in the Global ICPC competition placing 79th worldwide, and the IWLS Programming Contest Series organized placing first.
Cyprus is attracting top caliber professionals, educating best in class researchers, also enabling startups and technology innovators to sponsor talented technologists, and researchers.
The Chief Scientist presented the 7 Centers of Excellence and how these are focused on specific industries and thematic priorities such as Biobanking and Genetic diseases, Maritime sciences, Earth observation, Climate change, Technology including Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Augmented and Virtual Reality and others. Mr. Skourides said that these Centers of Excellence are co-funded by the European Teaming and supported by the Government of Cyprus with a strong focus on establishing sustainability. These Centers are built up to serve as ecosystem accelerators and engage in fundamental research, applied research and commercialization of products and services.
The Chief Scientist also provided a thorough introduction of the key RIF funding tools that support the Research and innovation strategy referring to main Knowledge Transfer and Collaboration programs such as the ‘Co-develop’ and ‘Research in Enterprises’, programs supporting the internationalization of the ecosystem in key areas including the European Partnerships on Key Digital Technologies, Urban Transitions, the Blue Economy, Clean Energy Transition, Rare Diseases and Agroecology as well as programs that allow enterprises across EU member states and beyond to co-develop innovative solutions. The Chief Scientist also paid emphasis on the Excellence hubs funding excellence research and programs supporting innovative entrepreneurship from very early stages to scale-up of companies internationally: Pre-seed, Seed, Innovate, Disrupt. Mr. Skourides highlighted that through these programs, startups and scaleups receive equity free support from the government and are supported by additional tools that aim at creating a stronger, digital savvy, innovation ecosystem. Furthermore, the Chief Scientist also introduced the strategic infrastructures recently funded by the RIF in the areas of Environment/Energy, Agrifood, Health, Maritime and Space where he introduced C-SpaRC, Cyprus’s Space research center inaugurated last week with partners Nasa’s Translational Research Institute, Sondankyla geophysical observatory from Finland, Araiteion hospital, University of Cyprus, Cyprus institute of neurology, Cyprus space solutions under the coordination of Cyprus space exploration organization.
What stands out is that the C-Spark project is lead with gender equality with two of the four leads being Dr Dorit Donviel, Executive Director of Translational Institute for Space Health and Prof. Eija Tanskanen, Director of Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory. Furthermore, the Chief Scientist also shared that both the Cyprus Space Exploration Organization and the Cyprus Institute of Genetics and Neurology are contributing to the gender balance allocating top female researchers for 50% of the resources on this ambitious project.
Concluding, the Chief scientist highlighted the importance of gender equality in advancing science affirming that more than 60% of the RIF staff are female. Building on the strategic agenda discussed between H.E. Ms. Deemah AlYahya Secretary General of DCO and Deputy Minister H.E. Dr. Nicodemos Damianou, the Chief scientist confirmed the maturity of Research, Innovation and Technology ecosystem, welcoming the future establishment of a DCO branch in Cyprus, unlocking trapped value across borders.