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Research Centres/Units of Excellence
in Physical Sciences & Engineering (based on ERC success)
The National Technical University of Athens - and in particular the School of Civil Engineering (Prof. Gazetas & Prof.
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Papadrakakis) and the School of Applied Mathematical & Physical Sciences (Prof. Dafalias & Prof. Vardoulakis &
team), with two Advanced grantees each - constitutes one of the Greek centres of excellence, displaying international
leadership in seismic research in areas such as geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, soil mechanics
and geomaterials.
The School of Electrical & Computer Engineering hosts Prof. Avramopoulos - panel member in the Starting funding
scheme – that is internationally recognised in the area of Systems & Communication Engineering and in particular
in the field of photonics communications
The Institute of Material Sciences of the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” hosts two Advanced
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grantees (Dr Kordas & Dr Dimoulas) that excel in the field of material sciences and in particular in micro- and nano-
technologies. Prof. Aifantis - ERC Starting grantee at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - is a young talent that
is also widely acknowledged in material sciences and nanotechnologies.
The Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser (FORTH), with one ERC panel member (Prof. Charalambidis) and one
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Starting grantee (Prof. Rakitzis), has high-level expertise in the area of “Fundamental constituents of matter” (Laser
interactions & Photonics) in fields such as polarization spectroscopy and attosecond science. Both researchers
hold a professorship at the Physics Department of the University of Crete.
The Faculty of Informatics & Telecommunications of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens is an emerging
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research centre of excellence in Computer Science & Informatics in the fields of cryptography, computer security,
digital preservation, networking, and mobile computing, among others. In this sense, the abovementioned faculty
hosts two Starting grantees (Prof. Roussopoulou & Prof. Kiayias) and a third PI (Prof. Achlioptas) who, while
implementing his ERC Grant at the Computer Technology Institute & Press “Diophantus”, has also a teaching
position (professorship) at the same faculty.
Based at the Physics Department of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens is Prof. Tsinganos - a panel
member in the Advanced Grant scheme - who excels in Astrophysics & Astronomy.
The Computer Technology Institute & Press Diophantus, with one Starting Grant holder (Prof. Achlioptas) and
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one ERC reviewer (Prof. Spirakis) displays top expertise in ICT and computational mathematics in fields such
as Algorithms and complexity, Computer systems and networks, and Algorithmic analysis of massive networks,
among others. Computational mathematics is also the field of expertise of the ERC Starting grantee, Prof Tsogka,
who holds a professorship at the University of Crete but implements her ERC project at FORTH.
The University of Crete and specifically the Division of Organic Chemistry of the Chemistry Department, with one
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Starting grantee (Prof. Vassilikogiannakis) and an ERC reviewer (Prof. Stephanou), exhibits high-level expertise in
organic chemistry in the fields of environmental and of synthetic organic chemistry.
Finally, among the PIs hosted by Greek research institutions there are three Chemical engineers. Two of them excel in
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aerosol sciences with applications in the environment/clean technologies. This is the case of Prof. Konstandopoulos
- Advanced grantee at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (Aerosol Particle Laboratory) and Professor
at the Chemical Engineering Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - and Prof. Spyridon - Advanced
grantee at the Institute of Chemical Engineering & High Temperature Chemical Processes (FORTH) and Professor
at the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Patras. The third PI is Prof. Athanasios Papathanasiou
of the Chemical Engineers’ School at the National Technical University of Athens - an ERC Starting grantee with
high-level expertise in physical chemistry.
However, each ERC panel is accompanied by a list of panel descriptors and covers quite a broad field of
research. In addition, most of the Greek organisations hosting ERC grantees are large universities or major
research organisations comprising numerous schools, faculties or institutes that range in quality and research
performance. Therefore, in order to have a better insight into the emerging and established centres / research
units of excellence in Greece in terms of ERC success, the scientific expertise of the principal investigators and
ERC reviewers located in Greece together with their affiliation at faculty, school and even departmental level has
been taken into consideration (see Table 8).
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the
case of
GREECE
5
years of
Excellence in
the European
Research Area
2007-2011