OEB Cyprus Innovation Awards and RIF Research Awards held with great success

The Cyprus Innovation Awards of the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB) and the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) Research Awards for 2023 were held with great success on 11 January.

President Nikos Christodoulides, who was present, noted that Cypriot businesses have made significant steps in the field of innovation, as recorded in the Commission's "European Innovation Scoreboard 2023", but stressed that all stakeholders should step up their common effort in this direction.

Addressing on Thursday evening the ceremony of the Cyprus Innovation Awards of the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB) and the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) Research Awards for 2023 the President noted that in the European Commission's Scoreboard “collaboration of innovative small and medium-sized enterprises with other actors in the ecosystem" is one of the categories with the greatest progress in Cyprus.

In his address, President Christodoulides emphasised the need to create an effective regulatory and legal framework to encourage commercial monetisation of the results of applied research. As he said, an amendment of the legislative framework to create the appropriate conditions for the establishment of technology institutions by the public universities, which will be submitted to the House of Representatives within 2024, is a necessary action in this direction.

He noted that the Government acknowledges the need to support and modernise the Cypriot social community, and is going ahead with implementing a series of other measures aimed at creating a new growth model based mainly on green and digital transition.

At the same time, he said that in recent years, Cyprus has made significant steps in the fields of research and innovation, presenting one of the highest average annual growth rates of Research and Innovation investments among the 27 EU Member States.

RIF funding programmes act as a key supporter of the research and innovation ecosystem, as about 45% of its funding is distributed to businesses, he said.

Within 2024, he added, it is expected that the RIF will launch programmes of a budget of €40 million.

The President stressed that "enhancing the competitiveness of businesses is the only way forward," adding that a key part in order to achieve this is innovation, the need for our businesses to be innovative. He welcomed the establishment of an award for the best commercial exploitation of research outcomes.

He said that "we are proud that Cypriot businesses are making significant steps in this area," as is described in the European Commission's "European Innovation Scoreboard 2023" which says that the cooperation of innovative small and medium size businesses with other ecosystem actors constitutes one of the categories where our country has made the greatest progress.

"Despite the progress achieved however, we must enhance and step up our common effort," President Christodoulides noted.

It is imperative that the government, together with everyone involved, he added, should among other things create infrastructures which will encourage and strengthen even more the cooperation of businesses with research centres. To that effect he spoke of the importance of OEB's contribution in briefing and training its members and the necessity of planning effective incentives to promote this cooperation.

Chief Scientist for Research, Innovation and Technology Demetris Skourides said that Cyprus houses well-trained, highly educated, multilingual and technologically skilled workforce.

As a result, the country presents itself as a strong innovator in the 2023 European Innovation Scoreboard for a second consecutive year, he added and ranks in 10th place among EU member states. Cyprus, he went on, is in the 28th place among 132 economies according to the recent Global Innovation Index, and stands out in the second place in the Middle East and North Africa region.

On his part, OEB President Antonios Antoniou said that the innovation awards were launched back in 2006 to support business competitiveness and enhance research and innovation.

Despite the challenges in the last ten years, the various problems that continue to emerge strengthen entrepreneurship and create opportunities that overturn the negative climate, he said.