On Wednesday, 13 November 2024, the KIOS Center of Excellence (KIOS CoE) had the honor to host the President of the European Research Council (ERC), Prof. Maria Leptin, at its premises and discuss the immense value the ERC brings to the research community in Cyprus and beyond. Her visit to KIOS was in the framework of her official visit to Cyprus, as a guest of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts, and consisted of a series of meetings and visits with the research community in Cyprus.
Prof. Leptin was accompanied by ERC’S External Relations Officer Mrs. Sabine Simmross, the National Chief Scientist for Research and Innovation Mr. Demetris Skourides, the Director General of Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF), Mr. Theodoros Loucaides, as well as representatives from the Deputy Ministry of Research and Innovation, RIF, and the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts. On behalf of the Center, the Advisory Board Chair and ERC Grantee Prof. Marios Polycarpou, the Acting Director Prof. Christos Panayiotou, the Associate Professor and ERC Grantee Stelios Timotheou, as well as other faculty members and researchers participated in the meeting.
During the meeting, the President of the ERC was briefed on the groundbreaking research and innovation conducted at the KIOS CoE in the field of intelligent networks and critical infrastructure systems. Special reference was made to the funding the Center has received from the European Research Council from 2012 onwards. Notably, the Center secured an ERC Advanced Grant for the “Fault Adaptive” project in 2012, an ERC Synergy Grant for the “Water-Futures” project in 2020, and an ERC Consolidator Grant for the “URANUS” project in 2023. Additionally, KIOS received two ERC Proof-of-Concept Grants in 2015 and 2017 to facilitate the development of innovative ideas into new services or products.
The KIOS Advisory Board Chair, Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer at the University of Cyprus and recipient of ERC Grants, Dr. Marios Polycarpou, presented the projects ” ERC Advanced Grant Fault-Adaptive” and “ERC Synergy Grant Water-Futures: Designing the Next Generation of Urban Drinking Water Systems, pointing out that these Grants were the first such grants in Cyprus.
According to Prof. Polycarpou, the “Fault-Adaptive” project, ran from 2012-2018 and aimed to develop fundamental research in the design and analysis of fault-adaptive methods for monitoring and control of complex distributed dynamical systems, leading to smarter and more reliable Critical Infrastructure Systems. The “Water-Futures: Designing the next generation of urban drinking water systems” project, he continued, started in 2020 and is currently active.
Talking about “Water-Futures”, Prof. Polycarpou pointed out that: “This project addresses challenges related to urban water systems, such as leakages, contamination events, cyberattacks, and its focus is not only technical, but also draws upon socio-economic aspects, such as fairness”. Emphasizing on diversity, Professor Polycarpou stated that the project combines expertise of 4 research groups from Cyprus, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands.
Concluding, Prof. Polycarpou, said that “funding from the ERC has been crucial for the Center, since it allowed us to develop a critical mass of researchers and work as a team to compete at a European level, advancing the frontiers of knowledge and addressing complex challenges that require collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches”.
Following this, the KIOS faculty, Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer at the University of Cyprus and recipient of ERC Grant, Dr. Stelios Timotheou, talked about the ERC Consolidator Grant “URANUS: Real-Time Urban Mobility Management via Intelligent UAV-based Sensing”, which is currently active. This project, according to Prof. Timotheou, proposes real-time, dynamic, and intelligent sensing of vehicular and pedestrian traffic via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and the use of the collected information for urban mobility management.
The President of the ERC, Prof. Leptin, after congratulating the KIOS research team for their innovative research work and their contribution to shaping the research and innovation ecosystem in Cyprus, stated: “Regardless of what geopolitical or financial situation we are facing now, one thing is certain – investing in science today, especially curiosity-driven basic frontier research, will secure tomorrow’s breakthroughs and drive long-term growth. Europe cannot afford to be a follower in the global knowledge economy. If we lead in research, we lead in shaping our own future. Our ambitions are bold, our talent is strong, and with the right support, our potential is limitless”.
“Countries like Cyprus, which have shown resilience and economic growth, now have a unique opportunity to establish themselves as future leaders in technology and innovation. Cyprus has significantly increased its national R&D budget over the last decade. That’s promising, but for a competitive research ecosystem a sustained commitment across government and society is needed – a long-term, system-wide effort”, she concluded.
The visit concluded with a tour of the KIOS CoE lab, where visitors had the opportunity to see the Center’s research facilities and talk with young researchers about their research work.
