NEW EXPANSION OF HIT / CERTH TO RHODES

THE OUTSET OF THE COOPERATION BETWEEN HIT / CERTH - REGION OF SOUTH AEGEAN

Grand opening of HIT offices in the South Aegean Region

The Opening Ceremony of HIT/CERTH offices in Rhodes was held on Tuesday, November 13 in the Conference Hall of the Regional Council, in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by South Aegean Regional Governor, George Hadjimarkos and the Director of HIT, Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris. The ceremony was attended by parliament member of the Dodecanese of ND. Manos Konsolas, Deputy Mayor of Rhodes Teris Chatziioannou, the president of the EBED, Ioannis Pappou, the former parliament member of ND, Vasilis Ypsilantis, representatives of political, religious, police and military authorities and agencies of Rhodes and Dodecanese. As representatives of CERTH, Institute Directors  Dimitrios Tzovaras (ITI), Spyros Voutetakis (CPERI), Deputy Director Anagnostis Argiriou (INAB) and Researcher Georgios Banias (iBO) were present.

South Aegean Regional Governor George Hatzimarkos welcomed the new HIT Research Expansion in Rhodes, highlighting its importance given the specific features of the South Aegean Region with its 118 ports and the huge population fluctuation between winter and summer months. Mr. Hatzimarkos pointed out the need for developing research infrastructures and intelligent services in the Region and highlighted the importance of working with HIT in this direction.

At the Opening Ceremony, HIT Director Evangelos Bekiaris highlighted the great importance of HIT's presence in Rhodes, which, with its know-how on combined research in Transport and Tourism, will create development pillars in the South Aegean, making the the Region a forefront for corresponding actions across Europe.

A Round Table Discussion followed, with the participation of George Hatzimarkos, Evangelos Bekiaris, George Kanelaidis (Professor Emeritus in Transport and Transportation Infrastructure at the School of Civil Engineering, NTUA), Sophia Vardaki (Researcher in Transport and Transport Infrastructure at the School of Civil Engineering, NTUA), Penelope Spilioti (former Director of Supervised Bodies of GSRT), Ioannis Anglos (former Secretary General of the Greek National Tourism Organization), Dionysios Negas (Honorary President of Hellenic Institute of Electric Vehicles - HELIEV), Stefanos Portselis (President of the Association of Driving Instructors of Dodecanese and a representative of the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Driving Instructors) and Dimitrios Paschalides (Head of Tourism, Sport, Culture, Lifelong Learning and Employment of the Dodecanese Prefecture).

Then the guests went to the new offices of HIT/CERTH where the inaugural ribbon was cut and a blessing was given. The offices provided to HIT/CERTH by the Region of South Aegean are located in the Medieval Town of Rhodes (Alexander the Great Square 7).

The office of the South Aegean Regional Authority hosted a meeting among Mr. Hatzimarkou and HIT’s directorate, Dr. E. Bekiaris and the three Division Heads, Dr. M. Panou (Section A), Dr. G. Aifadopoulou (Section B) and Dr. M. Boile (Section C), where the relevant priorities of the Region were analyzed and the first joint actions of this pilot cooperation were agreed.