Industrial Systems Institute was established in Patras, Greece, on February 1998, with the Presidential Decree 18/30-1-98 (GGG 28/A/12-2-1998), as an independent non-profit organisation, under the auspices of the General Secretariat for Research & Technology (GSRT) of the Greek Ministry of Development.
Its operation commenced on June 1998. Later, with the Presidential Decree 145/20-05-2003 (GGG 121/A/20-5-2003), ISI joined the research center for Integrated Research for the Information Society (IRIS), which in turn had been established with the legislative order (re: article 8) 145/2001 (GGG 128/A/25-6-2001), along with the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP).
IRIS was renamed with the legislative order (re: par. 3, article 9) 3438/2006 (GGG 33/A/2006) to Athena - Research and Innovation Center in Information, Communication and Knowledge Technologies (“Athena R.C.”). Presently it still operates under the supervision of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, which is currently under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Education & Religious Affairs. With the legislative order (re: par. 8 and 12, article 5) 4051/2012 (GGG 40/A/29-02-2012), ISI in conjuction with ILSP and the Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS) constitute currently the three vibrant R&D dimensions of Athena R.C., ISI being the institute with prime and bold focus on Industrial Systems ICT.