FORTH – Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas

FORTH – Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas
by Stefano Sbarbati

FORTH (Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas) is one of the largest research centers in Greece with well-organized facilities and highly qualified personnel. It consists of six Research Institutes and its research and technological directions cover major areas of scientific, social, and economic interest. In its thirty-year history, FORTH has established itself as a renowned and highly competitive research organization. According to the European research rankings (CORDIS data), FORTH has been consistently ranked (2007–present) in the top 100 research and academic institutions in the EU. The Institute of Computer Science (ICS) with the Information Systems Laboratory (ISL) – Centre for Cultural Informatics, the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) and the Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology are three of the six institutes constituting FORTH that will participate in PARTHENOS.

The FORTH-ICS (http://www.ics.forth.gr/) Information Systems Laboratory (ISL) combines expertise in knowledge representation and reasoning, database systems, net-centric information systems, conceptual modelling and has many outstanding achievements in the Semantic Web area and Digital Preservation. The Centre for Cultural Informatics (CCI) is a specialized unit in the ISL and brings together skills in knowledge representation, ontology engineering, knowledge organization systems, database technology and web technology with expertise in archaeology, museum documentation and management, art conservation, archives and libraries, thesaurus and dictionary management and other disciplines as physics, history, geography, biodiversity etc. Results of these activities include:

  1. Global models for information integration in e-science and cultural heritage, including archaeological data models and standards.
  2. Architectures and process models for data provision and data aggregation in research infrastructures.
  3. Data transformation and migration tools for provider-aggregator interaction.

The Centre works as competence center for the CIDOC-CRM (ISO21127:2006, ISO21127:2014), by building up and exchanging application know-how, consultancy to implementers and researchers, and contribution to the dissemination, maintenance and evolution of the standard itself.

ISL has a long experience in participating in EU and national projects. Recently it has been participating in the IST FP7 projects Ariadne, IdeaGarden, PlanetData, Aparsen, Scipid, iMarine, LifeWatch, eHealthMonitor, InGeoCloudS, ITN-DCH, Parthenos.

FORTH-IESL (http://www.iesl.forth.gr/), the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser of the FORTH, has established its international presence in the areas of Laser Science, Micro/nano-electronics, Polymer Science, Materials Science and Astrophysics since 1983. The objectives of the Institute are to perform high quality basic and applied research, to develop expertise in selected advanced technological fields and to exploit this either via sales of specialized innovative products and services or via the transfer of knowledge and expertise for the benefit of Greek and European industry and the broader public sector. It also provides education and training to young scientists in specific fields of advanced technology as optoelectronics, micro/nano-electronics, materials science & engineering as well as laser science & applications. IESL is primarily a Physics & Materials Institute aiming at performing high quality fundamental and applied scientific research, which is focused on two main research directions, Laser Science & Photonics and Materials & Devices Science & Technology whereas there is an important adjunct activity in Astrophysics (IESL operates the Skinakas Observatory).

FORTH-IMBB (http://www.imbb.forth.gr/), the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the FORTH, pursues breakthrough research in Life Sciences and Biomedicine.

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Within PARTHENOS, FORTH will lead WP5 “Interoperability and Semantics”, coordinating the work on the definition of a common framework of knowledge representation and the related processes of use for the sector in order to integrate knowledge about all content objects, media, data sets and their epistemic status in an open scientific workflow with background reference knowledge.

FORTH will also participate in the activities of WP4 “Standarization”, leading the Task 4.4 that refer to the definition of standardized protocols and procedures, and WP6 “Services and tools”, with a main focus on services and tools that enable interoperability.

Contact details

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FORTH-ICS

Martin Doerr

martin@ics.forth.gr

Maria Theodoridou

maria@ics.forth.gr

Kostas Stefanidis

kstef@ics.forth.gr

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FORTH-IESL

Dimitris Anglos

anglos@iesl.forth.gr

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FORTH-IMBB

Dimitris Kafetzopoulos

kafetzo@imbb.forth.gr
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