German-Greek Workshop on Knowledge and Technology Transfer

Recently, we were glad to attend a two-day Workshop, hosted at NCSR DEMOKRITOS in Athens, Greece. The workshop implemented a training approach for awareness-raising and empowerment of existing German-Greek research projects. Keynotes on knowledge transfer and exercises provided the opportunity to gain practical experience and hone our skills on knowledge transfer. SIJ was represented by Prof. Alexopoulos, and UPatras by Mr Panagopoulos. Calpak’s Mr. Sfinias participated as well.

Tuesday

On day 1, after being welcomed by the Greek Alternate Minister for Education, Research and Religious Affairs and the German Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Education and Research, we were guided through the Greek and German perspectives on our bilateral cooperation agreement. The overview, expectations and goals of the Greek-German Research and Innovation Program were presented by Dr. Maria Christoula of GSRT and Gisela Cramer von Clausbruch of BMBF. The day ended with us being received upon invitation of the BMBF at the residence of the German Ambassador in Athens, where we had the opportunity to exchange ideas with partners in a warm and friendly atmosphere.

Wednesday

On day 2, Dr. Hans-Peter Niller of DLR outlined an overview of the Greek-German Research and Innovation Programme, while Manuel Molina Vogelsang of Fraunhofer IMW briefed us on strategic networking to enhance knowledge and technology transfer in international cooperation. With a common transfer vision was in mind as presented by Jördis Winkler of Fraunhofer IMW, the participants were separated in parallel working groups, based on project subject relevance. Our group, related to energy, was guided by Dr. Julian Kahl of Fraunhofer IMW. Other groups included Health & Bio-Economy, Culture & Tourism and Materials & Key-Enabling Technologies. In the evening, Dr. Karen Böhme of PTJ aided us to summarize our findings, which were then showcased by 4 representatives of the working groups.

Thursday

On the last day, Dr. Karen Böhme summarized day 2 and provided an outlook on our tasks in hand. Wojciech Roskiewicz of Fraunhofer IMW explained ways to transfer results from research to market, and we were split to our groups and got to work. At 11:45, Dr. Steffen Preissler of Fraunhofer IMW coordinated a panel discussion, were 4 representatives from our parallel group sessions summarized the sessions’ findings.

Following up Manuel Molina Vogelsang of Fraunhofer IMW provided an outlook on the workshop, noting interesting findings, before being farewelled by Gisela Cramer von Clausbruch of BMBF and Dr. Maria Christoula of GSRT.

This workshop, yielded significant results on the Greek-German cooperation and the progress of its research projects. We were provided the opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss technical details on our projects and get informed on similar projects, opening the fields for potential cooperation with other Greek and German research institutions and companies.

After the end of the workshop, Prof. Alexopoulos and Mr. Panagopoulos briefed the project partners on the workshop’s findings and overall impressions.