Cyprus ranked first in the EU among the countries which obtained financing for the creation of Research Centres of Excellence in the context of the “Teaming for Excellence” Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has said.

Addressing the Federation of Employers and Industrialists Federation’s Innovation Awards ceremony on Monday, Anastasiades conveyed  his government’s “will and determination to utilise research, innovation and technology with the aim of creating a modern, sustainable and flexible state.”

“The government’s primary aim is to create further prospects enabling scientists to promote creativity, to develop initiatives and to be professionally established in their country with a long-term and substantive benefit for themselves as well as for our economy and our society,” the President added.

Our decisions to create the necessary preconditions for a substantive growth a consolidation of the sector with the aim for Cyprus to become a regional centre of research, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship lies in this context, he noted.

Noting the government invests in the collaboration of Cyprus’ business and the academic world as pivotal for the transmission of knowledge and the conversion of research results to innovative products and services of added value, Anastasiades said the creation of the Deputy Ministry for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy and the institution of Chief Scientist for Research and Innovation were landmark decisions towards that end.

Furthermore, Anastasiades said in the context of the EU 2030 Digital Decade, Cyprus is focusing in accelerating the digital transformation of the state.

Towards that end, he added, Cyprus allocated €282 million which corresponds to 23% of total investment of the National Recovery and Resilience Programme, exceeding the ceiling of 20% of total investments.

Moreover, the President noted that on the basis of the holistic plan the government promotes the development of quality and user-friendly digital services, the implementation of information systems in vital state services, the upgrading of technological and communications infrastructure as well as the upgrading of digital skills of both the labour force and the citizens as a whole.