Download Climate and Atmospheric research at The Cyprus Institute

news
MIT and CyI
team-up for
Natural Gas study
The discovery of hydrocarbon deposits, most notably natural gas, in Cyprus’
Exclusive Economic Zone
have kindled hope to attain
energy security, independence from foreign energy
markets and significant
export potential. Extracting
that wealth and making
it available for internal
energy production and
export requires careful and
knowledge-based planning.
The Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) and
The Cyprus Institute (CyI), in
the framework of their long
standing agreement, are
engaging in a joint study
on the natural gas discoveries and their implications
for the energy policies of
Cyprus.
page 5
Climate and Atmospheric
research at The Cyprus Institute
The Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East is
becoming a global climate change and air pollution ‘hot spot’. The research at the Climate and Atmospheric Modeling group at The Cyprus Institute
aims to understand the processes that bring about
the atmospheric composition and climatic shifts
in our region and their implications on the critical social-economic sectors. Using sophisticated
National HPC in operation
CyI’s supercomputer Cy-Tera is the
largest available computational resource
for academic research in the Eastern
Mediterranean. Providing so far more
than 3 million hours of central processing
time to regional scientists, it transforms
Cyprus into a key player in the region
for research based on High Performance
Computing capabilities.
page 3
earth system models and data from ground-based
and satellite measurements, as well as meteorological observations, researchers at CyI investigate
the complex interactions between atmospheric
chemistry and climate. The Max Planck Institute for
Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz is the main collaborator,
in these activities through its partnership with The
Cyprus Institute.
page 4
Countdown begins for the
2013 Solar Car Challenge
In 2010 CyI organized Cyprus’ first
Solar Car Challenge. The race proved
to be such a success that an annual
event was born, with local and
international teams racing with the
sun as their only fuel. The 2012 race
was spectacular as ever, while the next
race is scheduled for summer 2013.
page 7
A Digital Library for Ancient
Cypriot Literature
and Cultural Heritage
CyI, with the support of the Leventis
Foundation, has created a Digital
Library for Ancient Cypriot Literature
and is developing its expansion into the
Cyprus Cultural Library (CyLib), a digital
platform offering access to Cypriot
Literature, History, Archaeology, Art and
Architecture.
page 6
ISSN 1986-4019
w w w. c y i . a c . c y • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2 -2 0 1 3 • I s s u e 5
in focus
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry –
CyI’s strategic partner
From left to right: Prof. Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society and CyI Trustee, Prof. Paul
Crutzen, Nobel Laureate and former CyI associate, Prof. Jos Lelieveld, Director at the Max Planck
Institute for Chemistry and CyI Institute Professor at the celebrations for MPIC’s 100th anniversary
The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
(MPIC) in Mainz celebrated this year its
hundredth anniversary with prominent
guests attending from the fields of science,
politics and business. Research at MPIC has
been at the forefront of science throughout its centennial existence. Three of its
directors were awarded the Nobel Prize,
Richard Willstatter in 1915, Otto Hahn in
1944 and Paul Crutzen in 1995.
The MPIC explores the Earth and its environment on a range of scales, from ecosystems to the solar system, and from
nanoparticles to supernovae. It conducts
field studies on natural phenomena, as
well as laboratory analyses and experiments under controlled conditions, while
system interactions and feedback mechanisms are also simulated through computer modeling.
Nowadays, the research focus of MPIC,
with nearly 270 staff, is on Earth system
science and in particular the chemical
processes occurring in the atmosphere
and their interactions with oceans, soils
and the biosphere. It also includes the
influence of humans, as unprecedented
urbanization and industrialization in the
past centuries have changed the course
of natural processes on our planet, in an
epoch now known as the Anthropocene.
Having a common research agenda, in
Editor: The Cyprus Institute
P.O. Box 27456
Nicosia 1645 Cyprus
Tel: +357 22208700
Fax: +357 22447800
www.cyi.ac.cy
[email protected]
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w w w. c y i . a c. c y
2008 CyI and MPIC, entered into a partnership in the area of atmospheric chemistry and climate research. Since then, an
active cooperation has been established
with CyI’s Energy, Environment and Water
Research Center (EEWRC).
The partnership aims to extend the basic
research efforts and develop applications
with a focus on the Mediterranean region.
This will contribute to the knowledge and
methods needed for the sustainable use
of natural resources and environmental
protection. A major area of research focus
is the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle
East ‘hot spots’, and specifically the modelling of atmospheric photochemistry,
aerosol pollution, climate change and risks
of nuclear contamination. These hotspots
have been identified in the analyses of satellite observations, as well as in projections
of climate change for the 21st century.
The objective is to understand the links
between air pollution and climate, and
develop the capability to develop regional
projections for the coming decades and
beyond. The partnership also includes exchange of PhD students from The Cyprus
Institute and the International Max Planck
Research School of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics at MPIC, an exchange program for young scientists and the organization of joint scientific schools.
Published by:
Gnora Communication Consultants
P.O.Box 20365
Nicosia 2151 Cyprus
Tel: +357 22441922
Fax: +357 22519743
[email protected]
www.gnora.com
The AGWATER project:
Connecting climate, water,
crops and policies
The pleasant Mediterranean climate of Cyprus is
increasingly affected by droughts and high temperature as a result of global climate change. The
country is also experiencing the negative effects
of the economic crisis which also affect the implementation of European environmental policies. The
agricultural sector is particularly exposed to these
changes. The relative importance of agriculture for
the national economy has decreased over the years.
However, agriculture still constitutes an important
part of Cyprus’ cultural heritage and provides fresh
local produce, scenic landscapes and jobs.
The Energy Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of The Cyprus Institute, the Agricultural
Research Institute, the Cyprus Meteorological Service, the Geological Survey Department and Cyprus University of Technology are cooperating in a
new project called AGWATER. The project aims to
develop recommendations for climate change adaptation and water use for the agricultural sector in
Cyprus.
The researchers will use advanced modelling tools to
analyze a large set of policy and climate change scenarios. Climate change projections for 2021-2050 will
be developed, using a combination of dynamic and
statistical downscaling. The project will make use of
an intelligent predictive modeling approach to generate a new soil map for Cyprus. An agro-meteorological database will be developed and agro-climatic
zones will be mapped. Agricultural productions
will be considered with special attention for assuring climate-resilient, environmentally-friendly and
economically-efficient systems. Data from long-term
research trials on barley and potato will be exploited
to assess the effects of climate on the production of
two of Cyprus’ most important crops.
The project held its first stakeholders meeting with
senior officials from the Department of Agriculture, the Water Development Department and the
Cyprus Agricultural Payment Organization on July
2012 at The Cyprus Institute. A list of agricultural
production systems for detailed analysis was decided at the meeting.
The project will last for two years and is co-financed
by the European Regional Development Fund and
the Republic of Cyprus through the Research Promotion Foundation.
www.cyi.ac.cy/rd/agwater.html
at a glance
National HPC in operation
The Cy-Tera supercomputer at The Cyprus Institute is the largest available computational resource for academic research in the Eastern
Mediterranean. It is co- financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research Promotion Foundation and the EU infrastructure project LinkSCEEM, that is
led by CyI. Access to the machine is free to all scientists internationally based on merit, facilitated through a peer review process and an
international panel of evaluators. With 1392 Xeon core processors,
5.5 Terabytes of main memory and 420 Terabytes of disk storage,
Cy-Tera has been serving the computational needs of scientists from
Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Cyprus. This powerful
computational resource boasts a well-rounded architecture, applicable to a wide range of applications, spanning from computational
physics and molecular dynamics to weather and climate simulations
and bioinformatics. Following the first six months of operation, the
supercomputer has provided more than 3 million hours of central
processing time to regional scientists. Over the next year, a total of
over 12 million hours of central processing time and 300 terabytes
of storage will be made available to scientists in the region through
the Cy-Tera and LinkSCEEM projects, as well as through the Europe-
wide PRACE organization that networks research High Performance
Computing (HPC) centers in Europe. Through the leadership of The
Cyprus Institute and its support of this national HPC facility Cyprus
has become a key player in the region in research based on High
Performance Computational capabilities.
www.cyi.ac.cy/rd/cytera.html
Two high-profile visitors representing
Australia and Ukraine visited CyI
The Australian High Commissioner H.E. Mr. Trevor Peacock and
the Ukrainian Ambassador, H.E. Dr. Boris Humeniuk visited
earlier this year CyI. Prof. Papanicolas, President of CyI, briefed
the visitors regarding the Institute’s main research activities
and flagship projects. The delegates toured CyI facilities and
met with members of the academic and research staff. Reference was made to the extensive prospects of collaboration
between The Cyprus Institute and universities and research
institutions from both Ukraine and Australia.
Both officials stressed that through effective and close scientific cooperation, joint actions can be developed to address
common global challenges and promote innovation towards
knowledge-based economies.
H.E. Mr. Trevor Peacock (right) and CyI Researcher Dr. Stelios Ioannou at the
Unmanned Aircraft Research facility
Workshop Climate and human health: the impact
of climate change on vector-borne diseases
CyI and the Imperial College London have recently initiated a
collaboration to study the impacts of climate change on vectorborne diseases in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East
(EMME). A three-day workshop was organised, aiming to bring
together experts in the fields of Entomology, Meteorology and
Epidemiology to review recent progress in the assessment of climate impact on vector-borne diseases.
Scientists from Cyprus, other EU countries and Israel attended the
workshop and discussed how to better project climate change
impact upon the spread of diseases including Malaria, and the
Dengue, West Nile and Chikungunya Fevers in Europe and the
EMME, as well as the development of tools to help plan strategies
for prevention and control of the spread of insect vectors and the
diseases they transmit. The greatest threats to the region were
identified and a framework for research predicting and preventing these threats was developed.
3
research news
Climate and atmospheric research
at The Cyprus Institute
The Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East,
with 400 million inhabitants and years of rapid
population growth and extensive land conversion is becoming a global climate change and air
pollution ‘hot spot’. The research at the Climate
and Atmospheric Modeling group at CyI aims to
understand the processes that bring about the atmospheric composition and climatic shifts in the
region and their implications on the critical socialeconomic sectors. The group is led by Prof. Jos Lelieveld and composed of 18 researchers and PhD
students from Cyprus and abroad with expertise
in Atmospheric and Climate Sciences.
The group investigates the complex interactions
between atmospheric chemistry and climate
with sophisticated earth system models and
data from ground-based and satellite measurements and meteorological observations. The Max
Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz is
the main collaborator, in these activities through
its partnership with The Cyprus Institute. This relationship involves dual tutoring of PhD students,
exchange of scientists, common research projects
and shared know-how and infrastructure.
One of the most comprehensive tools in the
world for the study of the earth system, the
atmospheric chemistry and climate model
(EMAC) developed in Mainz, has been installed
in the Cy-Tera High Performance Computing
Facility of The Cyprus Institute and is used by
the group to study a wide range of phenomena, such as the mechanisms of anthropogenic and natural aerosols and their effect on
regional climate, the dynamical and chemical
causes of ozone pollution, the risk of radioactive contamination caused by major reactor
accidents, the impact of climate change on
vector-borne diseases and others.
Increase of Summer Maximum Temperature in Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, projected by the
simulations carried out at CyI using the PRECIS regional climate model
A prestigious major research platform and
source of external funding of the group is the
“Consistent computation of the chemistry-cloud
continuum and climate change in Cyprus (C8)”
project. This €2.2M Advanced Research Grand
by the European Research Council (ERC) was recently highlighted in ERC’s website as a success
story, along with other projects related to climate
change. (http://erc.europa.eu/succes-stories/ercfunds-projects-tackle-climate-changes-impacts).
The main project objective is the application of
novel approaches to model the interactions of
atmospheric chemistry, aerosols and clouds, and
to study air pollution and climate change in the
Mediterranean.
The group also studies in detail the drivers of the
changing climate in the Eastern Mediterranean
and the Middle East and the associated impact
of its future evolution. The Climate Change and
Impacts in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East project highlighted the vulnerability of
the region, particularly Cyprus, to the projected
warming and dehydration, and highlighted the
importance of their potential impact which requires further investigation. The next step of this
research effort will attempt to quantify the effects
of extreme heat and increased air pollution on
human health, agriculture and other critical socioeconomic sectors.
www.cyi.ac.cy/rd/climatechangeimpact.html
CyI’s Imaging Center applies RTI on El Greco works and prepares for Exhibition
CyI’s Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) Center offers great opportunities for research and dissemination. RTI is a product of the close
collaboration between CyI, the University of Illinois and the University of
Southern California. CyI is one of very few institutions worldwide with this
technology. Recently at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) in Egypt, CyI researchers Ropertos Georgiou and Prof. Nikolas Bakirtzis were invited to
demonstrate RTI photography, which enables the capturing of detailed
surface properties from high-resolution images, inside the Library’s
world-class museum documenting an Ancient Egyptian stele. The CyI
team is planning to return for the systematic documentation of selected
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objects from the Library’s collections.
In Cyprus and in the context of CyI’s collaboration with the Leventis Municipal Museum researcher’s applied for the first time, RTI photography on
three celebrated works of El Greco. Additionally, the Bank of Cyprus Cultural
Foundation has invited CyI’s collaboration to a major exhibition that will
highlight RTI technology in the documentation of selected objects from
their collections as well as from those of other Cypriot museums. The exhibition will study a particular theme of great research interest: the representation of architecture and cities in coins, minor arts and other works of art.
www.cyi.ac.cy/rd/ic.html
MIT and Cyprus Institute team-up for Natural Gas Study
Figure 1: Exploratory blocks in the offshore EEZ of Cyprus (block 12 highlighted).
The discovery of substantial deposits of hydrocarbon, most notably natural gas, in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone has kindled
hope to attain energy security, independence
from foreign energy markets and significant
export potential in the foreseeable future. Recent exploratory drillings have revealed reservoirs comprising more than 200 billion m3
of natural gas in block 12 of the exploratory
region in Cypriot waters (Figure 1), while the
total estimated hydrocarbon deposits in the
Levantine Basin amount to 35 trillion m3 of
natural gas. While this may seem negligible
compared to the current estimates of the
total world resources of 208 trillion m3 [BP
Statistical Review of World Energy, June 2012,
(www.bp.com/statisticalreview)], the 200 bil-
lion m3 of projected natural gas in block 12
alone account for about 411 times the annual
electricity consumption of Cyprus in 2008 (5
224 GWh). This demonstrates that expected
reserves far exceed domestic consumption
and that there will be a significant potential
for hydrocarbon exports with related favourable repercussions for the Cyprus economy in
the foreseeable future.
However, extracting that wealth and
making it available for internal energy
production, as well as for export, requires
careful and knowledge-based planning.
Following deliberations with the Cyprus
Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism and the Research Promotion Foundation (RPF), the Massachusetts Institute
Left: CyI researchers N. Bakirtzis and R.Georgiou applying RTI photography on El Greco’s Dormition of the Virgin (dated
ca. 1565-66). Right: RTI image of a hellenistic coin from the collections of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation
of Technology (MIT) and The Cyprus Institute (CyI) will engage in a joint study
on the natural gas discoveries and their
implications for the energy policies of Cyprus. It will be carried out in the framework of the ongoing cooperation agreement between the Planning Bureau,
the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and
Tourism, RPF, MIT and CyI. The study will
comprise a two-year program of research
and analysis that will emphasise strategic
options for utilizing the Cypriot natural gas resources and will consist of two
sub-projects. While one sub-project (A)
will focus on the possible transformation
of the Cypriot energy system, including
electricity, heating and cooling, transportation, industry and desalination sectors,
the second (B) will investigate optimized
monetization of the natural gas resources
in regional and global markets. As a third
partner besides MIT and CyI, the IIT Team
of Comillas University in Madrid, Spain
will participate in sub-project A. At the
end of the study, it is expected that key
technology and policy options will be
jointly identified to meet the long term
economic, environmental, social and strategic needs of Cyprus and thereby pave
the way for substantial and well-founded
policy decisions.
5
news in brief
Dionysus.
Limestone relief
from Idalion,
3d/2nd century BC
(Cyprus Museum),
featured in the
Archaia Kypriaki
Grammateia
Digital Corpus.
Colloquium for
Concentrated Solar Power
The Cyprus Institute as part of its colloquium series organised in September 2012 a talk entitled ‘The global status
of concentrating solar power and activities at CSIRO’. The
guest speaker was Mr. Wes Stein, the Manager of Renewable Energy at the Division of Energy Technology at CSIRO,
one of the largest and most diverse scientific institutions
in the world, located across 56 sites throughout Australia
and overseas. Mr. Stein is a member of the Australian Solar
Institute’s Research Advisory Committee, a member of the
United Nations’ International Solar Energy Committee and
a member of various international scientific committees
for solar and renewable energy.
The presentation discussed the global status of Concentrated Solar Power technology, and presented state-of-theart technologies and research activities at CSIRO’s National
Solar Energy Centre which thematically match those of CyI.
Amongst them the latest advances in heliostat technology,
high temperature steam cycles, thermal storage based on
gaseous, solid and high temperature salts, advanced Brayton cycles based on air and supercritical CO2, and solar fuels
which provide a means for countries like Australia to export
solar energy. CSIRO comprises an excellent partner for collaboration with CyI in the field of solar energy and efforts
are under way to realise such a partnership.
A Digital Library for Ancient Cypriot
Literature and Cultural Heritage
With the generous support of the Leventis Foundation, CyI has created a
Digital Library for Ancient Cypriot Literature and is developing its expansion into the Cyprus Culture Library (CyLib) which will constitute a digital
platform that will offer access to Cypriot Literature as well as to Cypriot
History, Archaeology, Art and Architecture.
The primary effort concentrated on the creation of a new searchable digital
library of Ancient Cypriot Literature (Αρχαία Κυπριακή Γραμματεία), based on
the impressive six-volume corpus led by Profs. A. Voskos, K. Michaelides and
I. Taifacos which was published by the Leventis Foundation between 19952008. The corpus covers the ancient Cypriot literary production in a time span
of fifteen centuries and examines it through its wide range of literary genres.
The digital library will attract multidisciplinary users at all levels of education,
although it will be of particular interest to the specialist audience, such as classicists, linguists, historians, archaeologists and philosophers. This effort and its
expanded CyLib version will also target a wider audience generally interested
in the broad, diverse and layered context of Cypriot Cultural Heritage. CyLib
will be prepared, hosted and maintained by STARC.
www.cyi.ac.cy/rd/akg/html
Local Politicians visit The Cyprus Institute
High ranking delegates from the Democratic Rally Party, the
European Party and the Green Party visited consecutively CyI
and were briefed on the Institute’s overall vision and achievements, the progress on its strategic development plan, its research accomplishments and the problems and challenges it
is facing.
Particular emphasis was given to the significant achievements
in the areas of Solar Energy and Desalination, Climate Change,
Computational Science and the Study and Preservation of Cultural Heritage, all of which highlight the regional nature of the
Institute and establish it as a leading research institution in the
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w w w. c y i . a c. c y
Eastern Mediterranean.
Following the meetings, the delegates toured a number of research facilities of the Institute, where scientific staff presented
some of the innovative research programs.
During the meetings, the CyI and the political representatives
commonly identified the need to focus on research and innovation in Cyprus, as well as their role in converting Cyprus to a
regional academic center for research. The development of The
Cyprus Institute has already contributed towards the realization
of the aforementioned goals while its further development will
be defined by them.
cyi community news
Five new Board
Members
The Board of Trustees of CyI recently admitted
in its ranks five new distinguished members.
The new members are:
• Prof. Ruth Arnon,
President of the Israel
Academy of Sciences
and Humanities
and Professor of
Immunology at the
Weizmann Institute of
Science, Israel
• Prof. Jose Mariano
Gago, former
Minister of Science,
Technology and
Higher Education
in Portugal and
Professor at the
Instituto Superior
Técnico in Lisbon,
Portugal
• Dr. Symeon
Kassianides,
Founder, Chairman
and CEO of Hyperion
Systems Engineering
Group, Cyprus
Prof. Costas
Kounnas, Professor
of Theoretical Physics
at the Ecole Normale
Supérieure of Paris
• Mr. Sotos Zackheos,
former Permanent
Secretary of the
Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Cyprus and
Executive Director
of the Russian
Commercial Bank
OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
2012 Solar Car Challenge – Racing with the sun
The Cyprus Institute’s 2012 Solar Car
Challenge took place in July 2012, on the
public roads of Pafos and Geroskipou.
The international event was co-organized with Neapolis University and the
Municipalities of Pafos and Geroskipou.
This initiative took place in Cyprus for
the first time in June 2010, in collaboration with the Research Promotion Foundation and due to its great success an JUST University Solar Vehicle racing in the open
roads of Pafos and Geroskipou
annual event was born.
In this year’s race, which coincided with
Cyprus’ EU presidency, 4 local teams (Pascal English School, Larnaca, Technical School of
Avgorou, Technical School Ayiou Lazarou and Latsia Lyceum and 2 international teams
(Jordan University of Science and Technology and the NED University of Engineering and
Technology, Pakistan) participated.
The solar teams constructed their cars or modified their existing ones, designed their own
engineering systems and raced their vehicles through the scenic roads of Geroskipou and
Pafos, attracting local and international, as well as media attention.
The Technical School of Avgorou were the 2012 winners while the Jordan University of
Science and Technology won the Best Design award.
The aim of the event is to promote the use of environmentally friendly renewable energy,
raise awareness and enthusiasm for alternative technologies that make fewer demands on
the environment as well as to encourage students to pursue studies in the fields of science,
technology and engineering. The organisation of the 2013 race is currently under way and
will be held once again in Pafos and Geroskipou.
www.cyi.ac.cy/rd/scc.html
Researchers’ Night
For the fifth consecutive year The Cyprus
Institute participated to the annual European event Researchers’Night. The event’s
main objective is to bring the wider public
and researchers together, and to present and explain science in a relaxed and
friendly atmosphere. The Cyprus Institute
participated this year with two activities.
CyI’s Autonomous Flying Platforms inspire future
The first activity was related to the Inscientists
stitute’s fleet of Autonomous Flying
Platforms for Atmospheric and Earth Surface Observations (APAESO). The platforms,
scientific equipment used during the flights such as GPS, accelerometers, altimeter,
wind speedometer, navigation sensors and electronic compass, photos and video material, as well as flight results, were presented to the public. The ground control station,
which operates essentially as a control operation facility during the flights, was also
on display.
The second activity under the title‘New Light on the Past’, presented the new innovative Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) Technology. The visitors at the event had the opportunity
to see and experiment with CyI’s recently acquired technology. RTI enables the capturing of detailed surface properties through high-resolution images. This technology allows researchers to
study artifacts in great detail without being restricted by fixed lighting angles. The result ensures
that high-quality digital versions of these materials can be consulted by scholars worldwide.
www.cyi.ac.cy/rd/rn.html
www.cyi.ac.cy/rd/bot.html
7
opinion
Innovation and Research
By Dr. Andreas Pittas
The competitiveness of the Cypriot economy is decreasing year after year. The
causes are various and numerous. Some
cannot easily be rectified, as for example
the size of the market, the employment
regulations and the cost of labor.
According to the Global Competitiveness
Report of the World Economic Forum,
ten European and Asian countries (Switzerland, Singapore, Finland, Sweden,
Holland, Germany, USA, UK, Hong Kong
and Japan) lead the rankings as the most
competitive economies. Cyprus, on the
other hand, is among the countries of the
Eurozone that are continuously losing
ground in competitiveness, and is currently ranking in the 58th place behind
Costa Rica. However, the country’s excellent infrastructure, its strategic location,
the large and highly educated work-force
all indicate that Cyprus could achieve excellent performance in this area.
A major prerequisite for the enhancement of competitiveness is the continuous development of Research and Innovation. It is an unfortunate fact that
Cyprus invests very little in Research and
Innovation, ranking last among EU countries with a rate of just 0.48% of its GDP.
Compared with Scandinavian countries,
the Netherlands and neighboring Israel,
the gap is huge and constantly growing.
Cyprus could reduce the gap, as it has a
relatively large number of scientists, as
well as some research institutes such as
The Cyprus Institute, the Institute of Neurology and Genetics, and departments of
the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus
University of Technology, which with adequate funding could yield significant
results within a few years. This requires
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w w w. c y i . a c. c y
A major prerequisite
for the enhancement of
competitiveness is the
continuous development of
Research and Innovation
strategic planning in targeted scientific
areas and institutions.
An excellent example is the Energy, Environment and Water Research Center
(EEWRC) of The Cyprus Institute. Its research is focused on areas such as climate
change and its impact, environmental
sciences, hydrology and water resources
management, and cogeneration of electricity and desalinated sea water using
solar energy, all of which could contribute
tremendously to the Cypriot economy by
transforming research results into innovative products or services.
The Cyprus Government should take a
step further by subsidizing Research and
Innovation in the private sector, in areas
such as manufacturing, services and agriculture. I believe it is essential to conduct a
thorough study, highlighting both the opportunities and the structural weaknesses
in each of these areas. The amount to be
invested for the promotion of innovation
is not outrageous. Investing for example
€300 million to private institutions could
significantly benefit the Cypriot economy.
We should not ignore the fact that the current global economic crisis is forcing international investors to turn to more competitive European economies which sustain
innovation and growth at high levels, placing Cyprus at a competitive disadvantage.
The risk of a rapid expansion of the innovation gap during the crisis is lurking!
Dr. Pittas is the founder and Chair of
Medochemie Ltd, CyI Board member
and Chair of its Executive Committee,
and former President of the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation.
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