Invest Cyprus and ANIMA Investment Network announced on Monday the establishment of EUROMED iHouse, a service platform based in Nicosia, aiming to support the innovation and green transition of economic operators in the Euro-Mediterranean area.
The project, an initiative by Invest Cyprus and the ANIMA network, is expected to launch its activities in early 2024. The announcement of the establishment and operation of EUROMED iHouse was made in the context of the annual ANIMA Forum, whose theme is 'Innovations for the Planet' and which takes place in Nicosia between July 10-12.
Emmanuel Noutary, Managing Director of ANIMA, noted that they are a cooperation network between around 70 economic organisations from 22 countries in Europe, North Africa and Middle East. He said they are a community of professionals, such as entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, who have two objectives; to bring the economies of the Mediterranean basin closer together to develop economic cooperation and to help companies have a greater impact on the planet and people and to contribute to sustainable development.
Those challenges, bringing companies to be more sustainable, require innovation and technology and this is why they decided to create the EUROMED iHouse, which will be based in Nicosia, and is a platform to support the creation of solutions which will create value for the people and which at the same time will take into account the limits of the planet and the protection of life especially in the Mediterranean region, he said.
Noutary said Cyprus was chosen due to its strategic location as it is close to dynamic south Mediterranean markets such as Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon that have, as he noted, a very vivid innovation and technology ecosystem. He added that Cyprus too has a very vivid and lively innovation ecosystem with 'excellent' research centres, and incubators, and that this was 'a good ecosystem to rely on to serve innovation and entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean region'.
He also said that Cyprus is at the frontline of climate change and that the people of the country, who are already experiencing the consequences of this change in their daily life, were asking for solutions, which is the same for other Mediterranean countries, 'therefore it is of use for us to locate this innovation hub in Nicosia'.
With the creation of the EUROMED iHouse, he said, they decided to promote a broad contribution to this Euro-Med collaboration by hosting and promoting startups, support programmes on these topics, by organising the transfer of research to companies in the region, by cooperating with international organisations particularly the EU, to implement cooperation projects between business and innovation organisations form the Euro-Med countries.
Noutary said that the new challenge is to start to collaborate with European, international research and development institutions who want to collaborate in making an economy 'which stops destroying life and creates solutions for its regeneration'.
CEO of Invest Cyprus, Marios Tannoussis, said that the project was an initiative of ANIMA and Invest Cyprus with the support of the EU and the Republic of Cyprus and is supported by local state and private bodies such as the Research and Innovation Foundation, Nicosia Municipality, centres of excellence, companies and universities.
He added that it is a 'pioneering' regional research centre for business innovation and technological knowledge transfer from the wider Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region in the face of climate change challenges faced by countries in this region.
Tannousis said that ANIMA's decision to establish the EUROMED iHouse in Nicosia honours the city of Nicosia and further strengthens Cyprus' position as a regional hub for research, innovation, entrepreneurship and development, opening up opportunities for collaboration.
He also noted that the promotion of digital economy, research, development and innovation were an integral part of Cyprus' national strategy and in the priority areas of the Government but also of Invest Cyprus, and relevant with 'Vision 2035', the long-term strategy of the State for a sustainable development of the Cypriot economy.
He said that the CYENS Center of Excellence, expressed interest from the very beginning, to cooperate for the purposes of the EUROMED iHouse.
CYENS General Director, Yiorgos Chrysanthou, noted the centre of excellence's commitment to the promotion of advanced technologies and specialisation in the promotion of innovation components which make it an ally and supporter in the implementation of the EUROMED project.
He also said that CYENS, which is a partnership of the Municipality of Nicosia together with the three public universities of the country as well as the University College London and the Max Planck Institute of Germany, seeks its participation in such actions and promising practices. The initiative to create the EUROMED iHouse in Nicosia, he said, 'constitutes an important milestone in our joint effort to promote research, innovation and cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean region but also to help establish Cyprus as a regional innovation hub'.
Chrysanthou noted that Cyprus was rapidly approaching this goal, as it is now in the 'Strong Innovators' category of the European Innovation Scoreboard, rising from the bottom in research and innovation to 10th place this year in the overall ranking of EU member states. He said that two to three decades ago there were hardly any universities or research institutes in the country while now there are 12 universities, some of which rank high in international rankings, eight research institutes, seven centers of excellence and hundreds of startups.
Source: Cyprus News Agency