A year of great develompent leading to a new period of consolidation
Athena President Ioannis Emiris reflecting on 2023
21-12-2023
2023 wraps up for the Athena Research Center with the new Robotics Institute up and running, and with an ambitious building program under way!
As 2023 draws to its end, our Research Center celebrates a year of great development and achievements. Beyond two major milestones that I present below, I let the reader explore the Center's research accomplishments, our new startups, and our outreach actions within the Newsletter and by following our social media outlets. With my warmest wishes for the Holidays and for the coming new year!
Robotics - The brand new Institute of Robotics is already a power house set to promote the science and technology of robotics in the age of AI through close collaboration with the Greek robotics community. It is already implementing an ambitious R&D project on Automated Robotics Systems funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan "Greece 2.0". The Institute is developing partnerships with academia and industry, within the country and outside its frontiers, while planning the first makerspaces so as to promote technological excellence. It is certainly an area where our work is sure to have a great impact in the years to come.
Infrastructure - With the open tender announcements for the upgrade and refurbishment of the owned building in Athens and for the construction of a new building in Patras, the ambitious building program of Athena has started. The goal is to house the entire research, innovation, and administrative activity of the Center in Athens, Patras, and Xanthi, thus offering the infrastructure for a leading Research Center at the international level, for the decades to come.
The program includes 5 building sub-projects supported by "Greece 2.0" with funding from the European Union - NextGenerationEU, as well as the European Investment Bank. The first sub-project involves energy upgrading and overall renovation of the existing building in Marousi. The main objectives of the interventions are the functional, aesthetic, and energy improvement, including a new amphitheatre, an enhanced digital center, and upgraded electromechanical infrastructures. Simultaneously, works are planned to ensure seamless access and service for people with disabilities.
The new building in Patras will be constructed next to the Scientific Park of Patras and will serve as a model for modern trends in the construction of bioclimatic and energy-efficient buildings, incorporating forefront methods and tools in building automation and management, sustainable development, and digitization—key research areas of the Institute of Industrial Systems. The new building includes both experimental and Living-Lab-type laboratories, offering opportunities for synergies and technology transfer. It will serve as a catalyst for further improvement of research, development, and innovation in the region and beyond.
The start of 2024 will witness the kick-off of the other 3 sub-projects: the procurement of a new headquarters building in Athens that will gather our research and innovation acitivities, modeling the surrounding premises of our modern building in Xanthi, and the restoration of the traditional building in the historical Old Xanthi Town, the latter posed to be a new landmark of that frontier city.