Emphasising the importance of research
Both the academic and private sector were recipients of research awards given at the State Fair Greek Pavilion on Friday which took place as part of a wider award ceremony in the context of the EU-wide “Researcher’s night” on September 22nd, to promote science and research.
Research awards were handed out to recipients from the primary school level to the highest research levels.
House president Demetris Christofias handed out awards to researchers or organisations that had attracted the highest amount of funding in their own field during the EU’s Fifth Framework Programme.
The Fifth Framework Programme, which ran from 1998 to 2002, was devised to help solve problems and to respond to the major socio-economic challenges facing Europe. It focused on technological, industrial, economic, social and cultural research areas.
It has been followed by the sixth and now the Seventh Framework Programmes to be launched in 2007.
The winners in the research categories on Friday were Savvas Katsikides of the University of Cyprus (category: Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development); Angelos Efstathiou of the University of Cyprus (Competitive and Sustainable Growth); Stavros Malas of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (Quality of Life and Managing Living Resources); the Department of Computer Science of the University of Cyprus collectively (User-friendly Information Society); Niovi Santama of the University of Cyprus (Improving Human Research Potential); the Technology Foundation (Innovation); Ioannis Papadopoulos of the Institute of Agricultural Research ; and SSM Computer Systems Ltd for participating in four projects of the 5th Framework Programme.
Why research is important
“Awarding researchers is a good way of emphasising to the public the importance of research in Cyprus,” said one of the awardees, Niovi Santama, Assistant Professor in Biology at Cyprus University.
“As part of the wider economy of Europe, research and innovation is the only way in which Europeans can keep ahead of our competitors and Cyprus needs to be a part of that.
“Research in European networks, such as that funded by the Framework programmes, is instrumental for the development of high-calibre research activity in Cyprus, providing necessary benchmarks and essential collaborations, and is conducive to gradually creating an extrovert research culture on the island.”
The success of “Researcher’s night”, organised by the Research Promotion Foundation in the Greek Pavilion at the State Fair grounds, was evident by the large attendance by the public, including all ages.
“The Research Promotion Foundation did an excellent job in showing the public, and especially the young would-be scientists, that doing science can be great fun and can start at any age and it involves mainly young scientists” said Santama.
As a result of the success of this year’s events, research awards by the Research Promotion Foundation will become a regular feature in an effort to encourage Cypriot researchers.
