Politics

The Prime Minister was given a tour of the facilities and was informed about the broad research work of EKETA, which unfolds in topics such as clean energy, fuels or low and zero pollution technologies, artificial intelligence, the development of advanced robotic systems, precision medicine, "smart" cities and the circular economy.

"I want to congratulate all the workers, the researchers, all the staff, because a very important job is really being done. And to repeat what I said before: research must also have a real impact on the improvement of everyday life, on the improvement of productivity, on the issues of sustainable transport and "smart" cities, it is at the center of our interests, it is not something that will happen in the future is something that is already happening today.

And I think that you also have the possibility to respond to requests from the State but also to come up with your own ideas, with the State as a partner but also always in cooperation with the private sector, and to develop such applications that from what I see they have nothing to envy from applications developed in the world's leading research centers.

And especially for a city that has been plagued by transportation issues, it's extremely encouraging that it's taking the lead. And what you showed me with the traffic lights and the improvement of traffic on the road with such an intervention is really functional and imagine how much better things will become of course when the Metro is finished and the Flyover is finished. But there will always be challenges in terms of sustainable mobility and energy saving, the way we handle the cars, the way the bikes come in, because above all Thessaloniki is a city that has such significant potential. But all of this must work in a unified and organized way", noted Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

"Better salaries to reward researchers and attract people"

The Prime Minister also responded to the center's managers' request for better salaries and new researcher positions: "We have given a commitment that on 1/1/2024, there will be a new salary scale for the State as a whole. This is quite a complex project, but we want it to be able to reward mainly those areas of activity where we want to attract people who we know that if we don't pay them well we simply won't be competitive.

We should not be under any illusions, the people who come and work here could work in the private sector with much higher salaries. Some choose to be here because they love research, but we can't have a huge earnings gap between research done in a public center and what someone would earn if they went out into the open market."

"And of course I want to say something else that is very important, the fact that EKETA and all our research centers can take advantage of the intellectual property they develop for their own benefit as well as for the benefit of researchers. Because this too is a perception. One of the great successes, I think, of the extroversion of our policy is that in 2022 we reached a record number of patents overall in the country", Kyriakos Mitsotakis added.

Among other things, during the tour the Prime Minister had the opportunity to see the "robot tour guide", the agricultural robot designed for various agricultural tasks, the electro-encephalograph that helps in the study of various diseases, the photocatalytic reactor that purifies water from any impurities and the self-propelled vehicle that EKETA has designed and which is capable of moving within the premises entirely by itself. Also, Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended a presentation of the anti-drone system which detects drones without a flight plan as well as a presentation about the real-time monitoring system of EKETA's energy consumption. He was also briefed on the Centre's driving simulator, which is used for a range of road safety training.

During the visit, it was emphasized that the goal of EKETA is the development and promotion of innovative scientific and technological applications that have a substantial impact on the lives of citizens and on the economy, a strategy that has led to the formation of 18 technoblasts with significant activity. The Center's human-centered activity includes the implementation of the "Hydrogen Innovation Hub - Technology Park", linked to the just transition of Western Macedonia.