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A Memorandum of Cooperation and Understanding was signed on December 12th, 2022 between the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection and "Athena" RC - a non-profit Private Law Entity supervised by the Ministry of Development and Investments - at the Ministry's premises.

Among other things, the memorandum aims at:
 

• Cooperation between ATHENA RC. and the Ministry in three main axes: research, technology, education

• Consensus on issues of blue economy and new technologies

• Synergies in open science strategies

• Joint use of research infrastructures and exchange of know-how for the development of research and educational activities

Regarding the Memorandum, Mr. Christos Stylianidis, Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, stated: "For the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, cooperation with the scientific community constitutes a priority. Our aim is to create a modern mechanism for managing the consequences of climate crisis and natural disasters that will integrate scientific knowledge and analysis. Business decisions must be the product of scientific documentation. The MOU signed with ATHENA RC. serves exactly this goal. If we want to build an effective response to the climate crisis we need collective work, synergies and collaborations at all levels."

Professor Ioannis Emiris, President and General Director of "Athena" RC emphasized that: "This cooperation will give ATHENA RC. the opportunity to contribute with the expertise of its Institutes and Units to the recording and monitoring of crises related to climate change, as well as to the prediction of extreme phenomena in order to limit the consequences of the climate crisis, through innovative technology solutions and services that we develop for the environment, smart cities, transport and in general for sustainable development and green transition. In collaboration with the Ministry, we will be able to design research and technological programs and infrastructures, always in accordance with the main axes and principles of the European Green Agreement, for Europe to maintain its leading position in matters of prevention and reduction of the consequences of climate change with the aim of first climate neutral continent on the planet by 2030".
 

Professor Phoebe Koundouri, Athens University of Economics / Technical University of Denmark and Head of the Sustainable Development Unit of "Athena RC", added that: "We are facing a time of multifaceted crises: climate change, the collapse of ecosystems, the pandemic, the geopolitical crisis, the energy crisis, the food crisis. Crisis management, and specifically, natural disaster management is a process of effective preparation and strategic organization of resources to reduce the damage they cause. It involves a systematic approach to disaster prevention, readiness, response and recovery, in which science and technology play an important role. More particularly, science and technology support understanding the causes of disasters and thereby predicting the occurrence and impact of disasters, so that we can reduce their impact on people and the economy, and increase resilience to them.

ATHENA RC. is a leading research and innovation institution in Europe that provides solutions related to the required data collection and infrastructure, modeling and forecasting, as well as the development of management plans and solutions, which can support the mission of one of the most important Ministries of the Greek Government, the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection".
 

The Sustainable Development Unit of "Athena" RC takes part in cutting-edge research to enable the transition to sustainability, through the implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 (17 SDGs), the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal.