Jobs for 400 scientists and researchers are expected to be gradually created in the unique of its kind COPE-Nano International Center of Excellence for Nanotechnologieswhich officially started its operation in Thessaloniki.

In his speech, the former Deputy Minister of the Interior, responsible for Macedonia and Thrace, Stavros Kalafatis, representing ND President Kyriakos Mitsotakis, mentioned the important foreign companies that invested in Thessaloniki, creating a dynamic in the wider region.

“This is a Center of Excellence, the first of its kind in Greece HORIZON Europe and it is a great success for our country because for the first time we have entered the hard core of research in Europe”, emphasized, among others, the Secretary General of Research and Innovation, Professor Thanasis Kyriazis.

It is worth noting that the Center with funding from European and national programs “won the points” 24 project proposals from 11 European countries. This fact alone proves that it is a sustainable and successful project, said, among others, the head of the special research unit funding the project, Federica Roffi.

Speaking about COPE-Nano, the person in charge of the project, Professor Stergios Logothetidis, emphasized that it is an emblematic project that aims to develop the internationally recognized Nanotechnology Laboratory LTFN (www.ltfn.gr) of AUTH into an autonomous, independent and Sustainable Center of Excellence. A Center of Excellence that will, he said, take a leading role at national, European and international level in basic applied and industrial research and innovation in the fast-growing areas of Organic Electronics, Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology.

The project for the creation of the COPE-Nano Center is coordinated by the Nanotechnology Laboratory LTFN, AUTH and it involves bodies of International Excellence such as University of Cambridge – UK, University of Bordeaux – France. “The COPE-Nano center will be a modern institution of Excellence, Education, Research, Technology and Innovation and will make Greece a Global Hub of Excellence and Entrepreneurship in Nanotechnology and Organic Electronics,” he emphasized.

Its main objectives include:

-Strengthening the scientific and technological capacity of Greece while increasing the research “profile” of Greek scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs.

-Development of initiatives and business activities with high-tech industries.

– Return of the specialized and scientific potential that lives and works abroad.

– Encouragement to link entrepreneurship and the development of the wider region.

The event was attended, among others, by the Vice President of COATEMA Thomas Kolbusch, partner of the International Center of Excellence COPE-Nano who, among other things, referred to the importance of the International Center for Nanotechnologies which is unique of its kind not only in Greece but throughout Europe.