Cyprus is strong on innovation

As an innovative economy based on European indicators, Cyprus currently ranks 10th, compared to 22nd five years ago, when it did not have a Chief Scientist, Research Minister Kyriacos Kokkinos said.

Addressing an event by the Cyprus Institute, Kokkinos said Cyprus is the only southern European country in the top 10, with the other nine countries being from Central and Northern Europe.

“We are among Europe’s Strong Innovators…Cyprus is one of the most innovative economies in Europe today, a fact that is not well known”.

The Deputy Minister said the Cyprus Institute has an excellent research infrastructure and produces “enormous work” even in data management.

He argued that the establishment of the Cyprus Institute “was a bold plan that was implemented with great success”.

The organisation still operates as a startup due to “the excellent scientists, the scientific work and the excellent Board of Trustees who keep the Institute on its right path”.

Kokkinos said research institutes, in general, can turn knowledge into “true added value”.

In Cyprus, there are around 2,450 researchers.

The new President of The Cyprus Institute, Dr Stavros Malas, said that over the last 30 years, Cyprus developed higher education and research, contributing 8.5% of the country’s GDP.

In other words, he added, about 10% of the economy relies on such institutions.

“If we look at it quantitatively, this institution is a protagonist because the state contributes a significant percentage, but the return on this investment is many times that of other institutions”.

The institute’s staff consists of 289 people from 30 different nationalities.

The Institute is made up of five research centres (Energy, Environment and Water Research Centre (EEWRC), the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Centre (STARC), the Computationbased Science and Technology Research Centre CaSToRC, the Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C) and the Science and Technology Enabled Development, Innovation and Policy Research Centre (STEDI-RC).