Meet Our Partner

The Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (CERTH) is the only research centre in Northern Greece and one of the largest in the country and it was founded in 2000. It is a legal entity governed by private law with non-profit status, supervised by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) of the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. CERTH has important scientific and technological achievements in many areas including: Energy, Environment, Industry, Mechatronics, Information & Communication, Transportation & Sustainable Mobility, Health, Agro-biotechnology, Smart farming, Safety & Security, as well as several cross-disciplinary scientific areas.

In 2008, CERTH was among the first Greek research organisations to undersign and accept the principles of the Charter and Code for researchers while at the same time CERTH’s representatives were members of the Greek delegation at the Steering Group for Human Resources and Mobility (SG HRM). Its latest achievement in the field of human resources is the “HR EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH” logo awarded by the EC in April 2012 as a proof that CERTH is committed to offer the best possible working conditions, regardless the socioeconomic environment, and at the same time works towards the realisation of the European Research Area (Innovation Union, Commitment #4).

Within CERTH, the Information Technologies Institute (CERTH/ITI) is the Organization devoted to the promotion and execution of research in the area of informatics and telecommunications in the Northern Greece. CERTH/ITI is one of the leading Institutions of Greece in the fields of Informatics, Telematics and Telecommunications, with long experience in numerous European and national R&D projects, It is active in a large number of research domains such as Security and Surveillance, Image and Signal Processing, Computer & Cognitive Vision, Human Computer Interaction, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Robotics, Multimedia, Database and Information Systems and Social Media Analysis.

CERTH/ITI has participated in more than 175 research projects funded by the European Commission (FP5-FP6-FP7 & H2020) and more than 100 research projects funded by Greek National Research Programmes and Consulting Subcontracts with the Private Sector (Industry). The last three years, the Information Technologies Institute has attracted an income of more than 25.5 M€ from National and European competitive R&D projects. For the last 10 years, the publication record of ITI includes more than 270 scientific publications in international journals, more than 600 publications in conferences and 100 books and book chapters. These works have been cited in more than 6.500 times.

Dr. Dimitrios Tzovaras, which will undertake the role of Chairman of the Scientific Board (and WP6 leader) is the Director of the Information Technologies Institute, Visiting Professor at the Imperial College London and has profound experience in the management of EU projects. A more detailed CV is provided in the CERTH/ITI personnel. Thus it should be pointed out that i) CERTH/ITI has the expertise, critical mass and the capacity to technically manage such a major Research and Innovation project and ii) Dr. Dimitrios Tzovaras, being the chairperson of the Project Scientific Board, has the required expertise in scientific management of past and ongoing European Projects and his profound experience covers most of the project research and innovation areas in order to be able scientifically and technically oversee the project activities.