15-07-16 Three billion euros funding for Ministry of Education, Research, Religious Affairs
Addressing an audience at the signing of the Greek government-European Investment Bank agreement on research funding, Education, Research and Religious Affairs Minister Nikos Filis announced three billion euros in funding for education, research and lifelong learning.
Filis said that 1.6 billion euros will be earmarked for the improvement of infrastructure at all levels of the educational system. Initiatives will be undertaken to increase participation in pre-school education, reducing the dropout rate, updating and modernising the knowledge and skills of teachers, support for timely completion of studies, measures to ensure equal participation of disabled students, support for students in tertiary education from particular social groups and low income brackets, and support for lifelong learning programmes.
Another 1.4 billion euros are slated for the support of research projects and personnel and supporting the viability of the research and innovation infrastructure, as well as the cultivation of ties and synergies between enterprises , research centres, and universities.
Minister Nikos Filis’ remarks
The agreement signed today between the EIB and the Greek state, underlines once again the emphasis of this government on Research and Innovation. It involves the funding of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, and the related bill will soon be passed by the Greek parliament.
ELIDEK is a new foundation, a private law legal entity, focusing on support of qualitative research and innovative entrepreneurship. In the first phase, it will be funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB) (180 million euros over the next three years) and by the Greek state’s Public Investment Programme (60 million euros over the next three years).
The objective of this foundation is mainly to fund research programmes following evaluation, and the awarding of scholarships in the framework of the National Strategy for Research and Innovation .
The Foundation will cater to the entire nexus of academic and research institutions, and it will be oriented toward supporting young researchers at the pre and post-doctoral level, with the aim of stemming the brain drain of young academics going abroad, and bolstering research infrastructure.
We aspire to make the new foundation operate as the underpinning of a unified area of Research and Education, and to facilitate the development of a true Information Society, which will contribute to the productive restructuring of the country with a social outlook.
At this point, I want to note the great efforts of the Education Ministry to secure over three billion euros in funding for education, research, and lifelong learning for the period 2016-2020.
It is the strategic priority of the ministry to utilise all the funding tools that will support and serve education. That means primarily National Strategic Reference Framework funding (NSRF, or ESPA in Greek), but also all other available funding sources. A main priority is supporting personnel and teachers serving in the educational system, who manage to produce exceptional results in an especially difficult economic environment, and in a crisis the repercussions of which were extremely harsh for our educational system.
-Our aim is to update infrastructure and apply contemporary paedagogical methods, so as to offer the country’s students and university students the necessary skills and capabilities that will allow them to integrate dynamically in society and meet the demands of the international environment.
More than 1.6 billion euros will be spent on: improving the infrastructure at all levels of education, initiatives to increase attendance in pre-school education, the reduction of the dropout rate, the upgrading and modernisation of the knowledge and skills of teachers, support for the timely completion of studies, bolstering the participation of disabled students and those in special social groups and low income brackets in tertiary education, as well as support for lifelong learning programmes.
Another 1.4 billion euros are slated for the support of research activity and personnel, upgrading and ensuring the viability of research and innovation infrastructure, as well as developing links and synergies between businesses, research centres and tertiary education institutions.
Attention will be paid to the best possible utilisation of available funding sources and tools, to achieving complementarity between planned projects and the mobilization of all funding mechanisms. The Ministry, beyond the EU’s NSRF funding, has secured funding from European funding mechanisms such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), and it is also in negotiations with The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB).
The effort to secure additional funds to support educational reforms is a perpetual process. The ministry leadership, in a fertile cooperation with its departments, makes every possible effort in this direction.
