An independent team of professionals has been created to promote Research and Competitiveness in Cyprus through innovation and the protection of Intellectual Property which will, thus be created. This was announced at a press meeting on the 8th of December 2005 held in one of the conference rooms of the new Hellenic Bank Headquarters.
The objectives of this team initiative are:-
1. To increase awareness among academia and professional bodies / researchers on the need to innovate through research in order to regain the competitiveness of the economy, to create new products and technology intensive businesses.
2. To sensitize the businesses and researchers / innovators on the need to protect their intellectual property.
3. Through direct face to face meetings with Government Ministers, political Parties, Parliamentary Committees, and the Cypriot MEPs, to ensure they understand the strategic importance of innovation and IP in the competitiveness and development process of Cyprus within the context of the internal Market in the European Union and the need to provide the necessary efficient legal framework and to offer incentives to encourage researchers to innovate.
4. To monitor the developments in the efforts to harmonize and simplify the framework for the registration and protection of Intellectual Property into a centralized pan-european system which will be time and cost efficient / effective; the team to intervene with the appropriate committees of the Commission and the Council of Ministers though memoranda and opinion documents.
The members of the team are independent volunteer professionals; the team depends on corporate sponsorship to fund the various publications and activities for achieving the objectives.
The members of the team are:-
Constantinos Kittis, former Minister and Senior Corporate Strategy Counsel (team co-ordinator)
Maria Kyriacou, Barrister at law, former Registrar of Company: Member of the House of Representatives.
Costas Apostolides, Economist, with wide experience in macro-economic studies and European Programmes.
Shavasb Bohdjalian, Publisher and General Manager, “Financial Mirror”
Vaso Rousounidou, European Patent Attorney, Lawyer.
The team will be publishing informative pamphlets / booklets, organize panel discussions, personal interviews and presentations to various target audiences.
