It is with great pleasure that we are holding this meeting today among the six Centres of Excellence already operating in our country, biobank.cy, CARE-C, CMMI - Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute, CYENS, HERATOSTHENIS, KOIOS and the 7th one called FAETHON which will soon start its operation. The purpose of the meeting is to provide information on the current activities of the Centres of Excellence, with emphasis on the services they can offer to policy makers and implementers as well as to develop synergies between the Centres and public and wider public sector bodies. It is very positive that we have with us today representatives of almost all Ministries/Secretaries of State, whom we thank for their participation. We also thank the Municipality of Nicosia for hosting us in this impressive venue.
Recently, on 21 April, the World Day of Creativity and Innovation was celebrated all over the world. According to the United Nations, "human creativity and innovation, both at the individual and collective levels, have become the real wealth of nations in the twenty-first century". Indeed, creativity and innovation can provide solutions to major problems, make a decisive contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, create new jobs and thus improve the quality of life of citizens. Recognising their contribution to a more resilient economy and a diversified economic model for the country, the State attaches particular importance to promoting the research and innovation sector, which has enormous potential. The country's centres of excellence have a leading role to play in this area. They develop cutting-edge research on subjects covering the whole spectrum of human activity, with a wide range of applications in health, education, the environment, tourism and energy. The Centres of Excellence bring together valuable knowledge and expertise and have the potential to offer practical solutions to the ever-increasing needs and diverse challenges facing modern societies. Challenges such as climate change, water resource management, green energy transition, digital transformation and sustainable blue growth.
Cyprus can rightly boast that it has a high level of research excellence. It is no coincidence that of the 38 Centres of Excellence across Europe that secured European funding through a highly competitive process, seven are in Cyprus. This is a remarkable success for our country. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those who contributed to this success, which brings us one step closer to our goal of making Cyprus a Centre for Research, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship.
On behalf of the State, I assure you that we have the will and determination to continue to support the Centres of Excellence through various activities such as today's meeting, which we hope will be a springboard for the further development of mutually beneficial synergies between the Centres and a wide range of stakeholders.
At the same time, in addition to the €105 million in government funding that will be allocated for the development of the 7 Centres, we will continue to promote actions to enhance their outreach in order to exploit their research results for the benefit of the economy and society at large.
On the road to achieving the major goal of sustainability, we are fellow travellers.
(ΜΧ)
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