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Greece in crisis

Nature Materials volume 12, pages 683–685 (2013)Cite this article

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In spite of substantial progress over the past 35 years, underfunding and lack of evaluation are preventing Greek research and technology from reaching its true potential. A coordinated effort between government, academia and industry could lead to viable solutions to the current crisis.

Higher-education research and technology in Greece weren't always in dire need of reforms and economic stimulus. Optimism flourished in the late 1970s and early 1980s when an intensive effort was made to increase the number and radically modernize the structure of national research centres. Milestones in this effort were the establishment of a new Ministry of Research and Technology responsible for the regulation of research activities, and the creation of new research centres operationally associated with selected universities. Further cause for optimism came from the fact that, in 1981, Greece became the tenth member of the European Union (EU), a development of decisive importance because it opened up the possibility for Greek researchers to compete for funding within the European Framework Programmes. During the 1980s and early 1990s, graduate studies within Greek universities leading to PhD degrees were gradually modernized, while studies leading to Master's degrees were established for the first time. New research areas, such as computer science, molecular biology, lasers, microelectronics, materials, and photonics were initiated and subsequently strengthened, while the corresponding old curricula were revised and expanded. At the same time, Greece became a member of several international scientific organizations, including the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the European Space Agency.

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Figure 1: European science funding for 2011.

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  1. Costas M. Soukoulis is a Distinguished Professor at the Physics Department at Iowa State University and a Senior Scientist in the Ames Laboratory, and was a Professor (part time) at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA. He has been an associated member of IESL-FORTH at Heraklion, Crete since 1983, University of Crete (2001–2011)

    Costas M. Soukoulis

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  1. Costas M. Soukoulis
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Correspondence to Costas M. Soukoulis.

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Soukoulis, C. Greece in crisis. Nature Mater 12, 683–685 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3727

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