The Information Technologies Institute, or ITI for short (it used to be called Informatics and Telematics Institute) is this super cool research institute that was created back in 1998. It’s a non-profit organization that’s part of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) in Greece, and their main office is in Thessaloniki, Greece. On March 10, 2000, it became a founding member of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), which is also overseen by the GSRT. They’ve been involved in a bunch of EU-funded projects related to MaTHiSiS, like ProsocialLearn and cloud4All. VCL is also currently active in several other EU-funded projects, such as PATHWay (Horizon2020), FI-STAR, LASIE, REVERIE, RePlay, 3D-ConTourNet, and more.
When it comes to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Greece, CERTH/ITI is one of the top dogs. They’ve been involved in a ton of European and national R&D projects over the years. We’re talking more than 80 EC IST projects (they’ve even coordinated at least 20 of those), and over 100 national research projects or consulting gigs with the private sector. In the last six years alone, the ITI research team has written over 150 articles in scientific journals and presented more than 300 papers at international conferences. If you want to see everything they’ve done, just check out their website at www.iti.gr.
Now, there are 7 researchers working at CERTH/ITI, but in total, they’ve got over 200 people on their team. This includes research partners, fellows, assistants, and of course, the admin and technical staff that keeps everything running smoothly. They’re also partnered with some big names like Imperial College, the University of Surrey, and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki to award PhD degrees.
Back in 2003, the GSRT chose CERTH to be the coordinator of the Greek EURAXESS Network, which is all about helping out mobile researchers in Europe. In 2008, they were one of the first Greek research organizations to sign on and accept the principles of the Charter and Code for researchers. They’ve also had representatives as part of the Greek delegation at the Steering Group for Human Resources and Mobility (SG HRM). One of the latest achievements for CERTH is getting the “HR EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH” logo from the EC in April 2012. It just goes to show that they’re committed to providing the best possible working conditions for their team, no matter what the socioeconomic situation might be, and they’re always working towards making the European Research Area (Innovation Union, Commitment #4) a reality.
The Visual Computing Lab (VCL) at vcl.iti.gr is another part of CERTH/ITI that’s worth mentioning. With 2 full-time senior researchers and 35 full-time research associates, their goal is to make new discoveries in multimedia and vision systems technology and share their knowledge with the world. They’ve got a pretty great reputation for innovation and have received funding from private national and international companies as well as the EU.
