The National Hellenic Research Foundation was founded in 1958 originally under the name “Royal Research Foundation”. It is a non-profit Research Foundation supervised by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) of the Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs in Greece.
NHRF has around 450 employees (both permanent staff members and personnel in externally funded research projects), of which, 85% of them are University graduates with the majority of them to be PhD holders. In addition, NHRF acts as an Educational Centre for undergraduate students, postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers. In particular, NHRF hosts, supports and trains young scientists (approximately 100 per year) who carry out dissertations, doctoral research (in collaboration with Greek universities) as well as post-doctoral papers in the framework of externally funded projects. Finally, a large number of researchers is involved in teaching in the framework of undergraduate and postgraduate programs of Greek and foreign Universities.
NHRF is carrying out around 180 research programmes funded by the European Commission, the Greek General Secretariat of Research & Technology, public organizations and private enterprises. During the period 2005-2012, the overall budget of the programmes amounted to 25,5 million Euros, which were carried out through collaboration with more than 100 partners from Greece and abroad.
NHRF has a long history in representing the country in international scientific organizations or other international fora on research and technology, and maintains scientific collaborations with numerous academic and research organizations in the country and abroad. In particular, NHRF has developed a significant activity on scientific exchanges with counterparts abroad including the Orebro University of Sweden, the Northeastern University, Boston Massachusetts, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Royal Society of London, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia, the Committee of Scientific Research in Spain and the National Institute for Scientific Research in Portugal, to name but a few.
Furthermore, the three Research Institutes have established a long-term cooperation with a large number of organizations (over 245) and researchers at international level whereas most of the Foundations’ researchers represent the country in international committees and fora. The Institute of Biology, Medicinal Chemistry & Biotechnology (IBMCB, http://www.eie.gr/nhrf/institutes/ibmcb/index-en_ibmcb.html), in particular, acts as a focal point of Excellence, through an interdisciplinary approach in the area of Chemical Biology with the aim of providing solutions for state-of-the-art issues in the areas of health, drug research, and biotechnology. The IBMCB aspires to play a key role, nationally and internationally, in research for drug discovery and biological target identification, as well as in research on high added-value fine chemicals, biotech products and processes, relying on the exploitation of the synergy between Chemistry and Biology, the expertise of its research staff and its significant state-of-the-art infrastructure. In this capacity, IBMCB also promotes research priorities on "Biomedicine and Health", "Agrobiotechnology and Food", and "Energy and Environment" as tools for national and regional economic growth.
Moreover, since 2004 NHRF is member of the European Network "EURAXESS Services", an important institutional tool of the European Commission which supports the European policies related to the development of the European Research Area.
Finally, EKT, as an extrovert organization bringing cutting-edge practices and technologies in the country, thrives on extensive international collaborations. They comprise participation in specialized networks, such as for example NCP Networks (National Contact Points), Technology Advancement Committees (e.g. Committee for the Development of Current Research Systems), numerous European Projects, professional organizations (e.g. the Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association), among others. EKT has a leading role in some of these networks, initiatives and/or projects: EKT co-ordinates the European Network for Research Infrastructures National Contact Points (EuroRis-Net 2007-2013), as well as the FP7-funded project Mediterranean Open Access Network (MedOANet) and the Enterprise Europe Network-Hellas and serves as National Open Access Desk for Greece, enabling the compliance of Greek FP7 & Horizon2020 grant recipients comply with the EC’s open access.
Read more: http://www.eie.gr/index-en.html.
The "MED-SPRING - 3rd Euro-Mediterranean Brokerage and Venturing Event on Research and Innovation" was organized by MED-SPRING project in Bari, Italy, from 26th to 27th May 2016. The meeting began in the afternoon on Thursday 26th May when the idea carriers arrived to CIHEAM institute, with the orientation sessions for the idea carriers. Idea carriers met during four hours with the Coaching Group members and the rest of idea carriers and project partners for last suggestions about their pitch, and the rest of the scheduled events were also exposed.
On Friday 27th May morning the registration desk was open and the biggest number of visitors arrived for the Key note speaking. There were the welcome words addressed by the vice president of the CIHEAM institute , by Claudio Bogliotti, the coordinator of the MEDSPRING project, by Dejan Hribar, project manager at the EMUNI University and representative of the MERID project , and Omar Amawi, representative of the Jordanian HCST, which is member of the MED-SPRING project. The first keynote speaker was Claudia Laricchia, member of the "Seeds and Chips" group . She exposed the need of involving ICT technologies in the control of the food chain.
After the coffee break the 5-minute pitch presentations began, in parallel sessions and lasted till the lunch time. From one side energy related ideas were in one group in one room, and the ideas related to water, food and ICT in another room. In each room each idea carrier had 5 minutes to fully present his or her idea, and there were 5 more minutes for questions and comments from the rest of participants.
The whole list of idea-carriers (with also the ones that could not come to the meeting) can be found at: http://agora.medspring.eu/brokerage_bari/index.html. Many bi-lateral meetings were organized after lunch, with the objective of discussing opportunities for partnership, investment or fund raising. Every few minutes each participant had to stand up and change the seat with another one, so the maximum face to face meetings could be achieved.
One of the objectives of the MED-SPRING project is capacity building and fostering Research-driven Innovation. The brokerage has been considered as a mentoring event for the idea carriers to develop their skills and improve their pitching capabilities.
Read more: http://medspring.eu/event/med-spring-3rd-euro-mediterranean-brokerage-and-venturing-event-research-and-innovation.
Colophon: This E-Newsletter has been developed within the framework of the MED-SPRING Project (FP7-INCO.Net 311780). For further information about the project please visit the official website: http://www. medspring.eu. Edited/Writen by MED-SPRING WP3 Team and MED-SPRING Coordination team. Images by MED-SPRING, NHRF, Universita del Salento and CGIAR.
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