"Greece 2021" Committee event on Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Algorithms

The "Greece 2021" Committee's last event before the end of the anniversary year took place at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the President of the Committee, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki. It concerned the announcement of the establishment of the "Archimedes" Unit at the "Athena" Research Center, towards which the "Greece 2021" Committee has worked methodically, implementing a proposal by Assembly members Christos Papadimitriou and Konstantinos Daskalakis.

Mrs. Angelopoulos pointed out in her address that "the establishment of this research institute was consistent with our decision to include it in the program coordinated by the Committee. Our objective was to do more than just celebrate the bicentennial as a year of tribute and remembrance; it was to also use it as a window through which we can look at Greece in the future."

“We provided the necessary human resources," the Committee's President added, "and we sought help from experts to compile a comprehensive proposal, with an appropriate business plan and projected sustainability and feasibility studies, which we sent to the Ministry of Development in our search for financing sources." The Committee forwarded the proposal to the European Recovery and Resilience Facility, where it was evaluated, and an amount of €21,000,000 was approved for the Unit's operation in the forthcoming years.

"I can declare with certainty that the new Unit of "Athena" will flourish and will successfully ensure an example shift in Greece, in a scientific area difficult for us non-experts to comprehend, but vital for our future," she stressed.

The Prime Minister, the President and General Director of the Research Center "Athena," Yiannis Emiris, the members of the Assembly of the "Greece 2021" Committee, Christos Papadimitriou, Konstantinos Daskalakis, and Markos Veremis held a further discussion on the subject. General Secretary for Research and Innovation, Athanasios Kyriazis, moderated the panel.

During the discussion, Konstantinos Daskalakis stated that algorithms do statistical analysis of the data available on the Internet and will enter all areas of our lives, even areas that we cannot currently imagine. Christos Papadimitriou, for his part, pointed out that this particular Unit will increase Greece's extroversion in the specific field, aiming to help young scientists remain in the country and strengthen collaboration with scientists from abroad and the Diaspora. It will also act as a communication channel with corresponding research units abroad.

Yiannis Emiris underlined that "Archimedes is a lever that takes us forward; it is an important reinforcing addition to the research work of "Athena." He also explained how "Archimedes" will affect the research ecosystem of the whole country.

The Prime Minister congratulated the Committee on this initiative and stressed that it is "an exceptional dowry for the country. It is a vision of the leading minds of artificial intelligence that becomes a reality thanks to the help of the "Greece 2021" Committee."