CYPRUS: Solar energy, air quality and super-computers

By Prof. Costas N. Papanicolas
President of The Cyprus Institute
www.cyi.ac.cy

 
The privileged geopolitical position of Cyprus has allowed CyI to operate as a research and educational gateway between Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean – Middle East region.
The primary objectives of the Institute have always focused upon the conversion of Cyprus into a knowledge-based economy through the use of science and technology, aiming at promoting peace and prosperity of people in the region. In a recent visit to the Cyprus Institute, the Vice President of the European Commission who is responsible for the Euro and Social Dialogue, Valdis Dombrovskis, stated: “The Institute is one of the most important pillars for the conversion of the Cyprus economy to knowledge economy.”
Recently, President Nicos Anastasiades who attended the first graduation ceremony of CyI, had stated: “I have no doubt that within the research laboratories and infrastructures of The Cyprus Institute the innovation of our future economy alongside the young scientists and technicians that are expected to drive it are being incubated.”
The Institute has focused its research activities in the broad areas of energy, environment and water resources, science and technology in archaeology and culture and of computation-based science and technology research. This strategic focus has resulted in the creation and successful operation of three research centres in multi-thematic scientific areas of regional importance and global interest.
In just ten years since its establishment, The Cyprus Institute has achieved:
• The creation of important regional research infrastructures of European interest and inclusion of such infrastructures as members of European networks (ESFRI – European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures), namely the supercomputer infrastructure, the infrastructure of solar applications, the infrastructure for science and technology in cultural heritage, and the environmental monitoring infrastructure.
• Securing large competitive funds, mainly from the EU and its Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7). By comparison, The Cyprus Institute has three times higher FP7 funding than the average of Cyprus (EUR 15,313) and more than 12 times higher FP7 funding than the average annual allocation of EU countries per researcher (EUR 3,742)
• Operation of three approved and certified doctoral programmes.
• Successful in securing and completing the Excellence Programme for Advanced Research in Climate Change funded through FP7 by the European Research Council amounting to EUR 2.2 mln.
• Success in securing two ERA-Chair and Twinning programmes totaling EUR 3.5mln awarded for research in solar energy.
• Success in securing major research projects in the high performance computing totaling in over EUR 1.5 mln. One of the two projects was the first project secured by Cyprus in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with coordinating institution from Cyprus, while the second refers to the European Joint Doctorate programme consisting of 14 academic and research institutions in Europe and coordinated again by The Cyprus Institute.
The performance of the Institute for securing external funding is impressive. The average annual funding from the FP7 per researcher amounts to EUR 45.856.

Some selected research fields are:

Climate change
• Research to understand the effects of change in atmospheric and climatic conditions of the region.
• Use of scientific tools, such as sophisticated computer models of the Earth system (with emphasis on pollution gases and climate change)
• Analysis of data from ground, aerial and satellite measurements
• The results demonstrated the eastern Mediterranean and the neighbouring Middle East and North Africa, as a hospot of air pollution and climate change, with increased drought and deteriorating air quality due to anthropogenic emissions and natural causes, such as desert dust. This will gradually lead to massive population migration.
• Assessing potential impacts to areas of interest such as human health, agricultural production and energy consumption.
• The CyI is working with government agencies in order to provide scientific advice to policy makers on effective and comprehensive adaptation strategies addressing the increasingly pressing problems of climate change in the region.

High performance computing
• The CyI’s Computational Infrastructure of High Performance Computing is a sophisticated infrastructure of computing resources and data storage, which enables investigation in Computational sciences, engineering and human sciences.
• The infrastructure was inaugurated in 2012 with the installation of an innovative, hybrid engine, Cy-Tera, which is the first supercomputer in Cyprus and the largest open access supercomputer in the Middle East.
• The mission of the HPCI is to provide super-computing resources and resources for storing vast amounts of data to the research community of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean region.
• The infrastructure also provides support and education to high-level researchers, capable of processing large amounts of data, and access to cloud computing).

Energy
The Cyprus Institute is implementing an ambitious plan to become a regional leader and a major EU hub for research in solar energy.
• Its activities focus on the use of solar energy to address climate change and promote innovation in Cyprus and the region.
• Important research infrastructures of regional and European significance have been built, including the unit 'Proteas' near Pentakomo, Limassol, mirrors the Fresnel unit at the Institute facilities in Athalassa and the Thermal Energy Storage Laboratory (TESLA).
• The CyI participates and coordinates a number of research projects in the fields of electricity production, solar desalination, solar cooling, storage and energy saving.
• The CyI also focuses on sustainable energy practices in the built environment, using its zero energy building (the New Technologies Laboratory) located on the premises as a model, but with an emphasis on research into zero energy settlements and smart grids.

Environmental Monitoring
The research infrastructure for Autonomous, Flying Platforms for Atmospheric and Surface Observations consists of twelve small and medium-sized unmanned aircrafts that are equipped with a variety of instruments and has established The Cyprus Institute as a reference point in the eastern Mediterranean.
• The possibilities of application are extremely large and range from repeated measurements of atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric data profiling, monitoring changes in vegetation and identifying pollutants in seas, up to monitoring forest fires, and the assessment of health and development of agricultural crops.
• A major achievement of CyI is that this infrastructure is part of the very important network of European research ESFRI infrastructures through participation in the ACTRIS EU funded project (Aerosols, Clouds and Trace gases Research Infrastructure Network) consisting of a series of stations in various countries aiming to harmonize the air measurements carried out in Europe, and their quality control.