Department Ε: Support and external services
Head of Department: Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris
Deputy: Ioannis Gragopoulos

Research & Scientific Staff: : I. Gkragkopoulos, M. Panou, P. Spanidis, M. Morfoulaki, S. Nikolaou, D. Margaritis, N. Dimokas, A. Tsioutras.

The "Horizontal" Sector Ε is horizontally supporting the whole Institute. It includes Laboratories, whose activities are directed towards all the other Sectors of HIT and the totality of its personnel.
These activities of Sector Ε include:

• The representation of HIT at and the monitoring of the work of the International Organisations in the field of Transport, which are of interest to HIT as well as the cooperation with the relevant sectors on issues of specific vertical interest.
• The development, maintenance and interconnection of software for the various applications of the research projects of the Institute’s Laboratories and Sectors.
• The development and maintenance of the internet site of HIT as well as all knowledge management that is necessary in order to make sure that the knowledge produced is properly preserved and disseminated.
• The interaction and cooperation of HIT with the society and the dissemination of its research results to the outside world.
• The production of innovation through the systematic and focused transfer of the research results to the market and the transport related industry in Greece and abroad.

Laboratory E1: International relations and transportation policies
Head: M. Panou

The international Organisations for which HIT/CERTH has an interest to follow, are divided in two “types”:

• Those to which HIT/CERTH is represented and is active in a regular way through a representative (they will be referred to in the following as “Type A”), and
• Those that due to lack of adequate funding or due to non-eligibility, HIT/CERTH cannot participate in an active way or be represented (they will be referred to in the following as “Type B”).

The Laboratory E1 is responsible to follow the activities of all international Organisations of interest to HIT/CERTH (of both types) and supports the HIT Director and / or the person responsible for the corresponding Organisation (for Type A Organisations), so that they respond properly to any obligations and or requests. 
The International Organisations of type A are the following:

• European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI)
• AVERE,
• ERTICO – ITS EUROPE
• EARPA,
• EGVIA
• ERTRAC,
• Federation of European Road Safety Institutes (FERSI), and
• US/TRB
• European Railway Network of Excellence (EURNEX)
• HUMANIST Association and Network (HUMANIST)
• Federation of highway research laboratories (FEHRL)

The Organisations of Type B are:

• United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
• International Transport Forum (ITF)
• International Freight Forwarders Association (FIATA)
• International Maritime Organisation (IMO)
• International Road Union (IRU)
• International Railways Union (UIC)
• International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)
• International Air Transport Association (IATA)
• European Transport Research Alliance (ETRA)

To the above lists, the management of HIT can add or remove Organisations according to the needs of the Institute.
The Laboratory E1 is responsible for transferring any relevant and important information or communication by the type B international Organisations to the entire HIT or to the relevant Laboratories.   In this respect, it is also responsible for the provision of information or data or completed questionnaires to these Organisations as the case may be.
The representation of  HIT to the type A international Organisations is done through the relevant Sectors or Laboratories. The representatives are appointed by the management of HIT, with the Laboratory E1 responsible always in copy.

Laboratory E2: Software Engineering – Maintenance of IT Infrastructure
Head: P. Spanidis

This Laboratory performs software development as a highly specialized task collectively for all Sectors of HIT. It is also responsible for the maintenance of all IT hardware of the Institute, the planning and programming of the purchase of new hardware and systems.
The laboratory staff is well integrated into the structure of this Laboratory and may well undertake – if necessary – work in other sectors (different from the ones designated here) as coordinated by its responsible person.

Laboratory E3: Education and Knowledge Management
Head: M. Morfoulaki

The Laboratory E3 deals with all the knowledge management and training actions that are necessary in order to keep the personnel of HIT up to date with advanced developments in the transport science and also to fully exploit the knowledge generated within HIT through its various projects.
Furthermore, the Lab E3 is responsible for the dissemination campaigns of HIT to the outside world on issues of social concern (e.g. road safety).

Laboratory E4: Dissemination and Public Awareness Campaigns
Head: S. Nikolaou

The relevant work falls into the sections as follows:

• Publicity and promotion of the work of HIT, in order to become known to the general public and other social actors. It does so through well-organized campaigns and partnerships with other Organisations such as the traffic police or municipalities. 
• Organisation of thematic/focused Conferences, such as the ICTR conference (which is organized in collaboration with HITE) and Open Days at annual or bi-annual basis.
• Management of the knowledge – publications – internet site, through the collection, classification, maintenance and easy internal dissemination of the knowledge produced by the various projects and research results within HIT. Also, coordination and the necessary logistics work for the publications of HIT and maintenance of the internet site of HIT with information and up to date material that comes from all Sectors and Laboratories. The lab does not produce the information that goes to the internet site but primarily coordinates and oversees the implementation of this work by all the sectors and Labs of the Institute.

Laboratory E5: Institute data analysis, Impact Factors and success Indicators Assessment
Head: D. Margaritis

Institute data analysis, impact factors and success indicators assessment laboratory was created with the purpose of maintaining and analyzing the data of HIT.
The Laboratory E5 gathers data through PMS tool that has been specifically designed for the lab, keeping all the features of HIT researchers’ academic activities.
The data that is generated through the operations of the institute is uploaded in the tool, reflecting the overall progress of the scientific actions and keeping the data available for further statistical analyses.
Laboratory E5 deals with the following spectrum of activities:

• Measuring the impact factor of the journals and publications of HIT researchers.
• Gathering and analyzing data about HIT researchers participation in conferences and workshops.
• Maintaining the archive of all the academic presentations of HIT researchers.
• Analyzing the features and impacts of the projects the Institute participates in.
• Assessing the overall success indicators of the Institute.

Laboratory E6: Commercial Exploitation of Research Results and IPRs-Patents
Head: E. Bekiaris

The Hellenic Institute of Transport puts an emphasis on making scientific knowledge and technologies developed by the institute available to the wider society, which will allow successfully transferring the research results and trigger their further exploitation.
The Laboratory E6 deals with the commercial exploitation of research results, exploring sound solutions for implementing the research findings and IPRs-Patents.
Patent commercialization allows their further implementation in businesses, by that contributing to the overall improvement of economic performance, while commercial exploitation of research results facilitates transfer of knowledge and tangible societal, educational, environmental technical and commercial benefits for both the creators, state and possible commercial partners.
Laboratory E6 undertakes the following activities:

• Focusing on Institute’s project results with high potential of becoming a commercial success.
• Planning of exploitation activities of HIT research results.
• Supporting activities of patent valuation and information gathering and IPR.
• Establishing spin off companies of the Institute.