“Creative Crete” is a unique installation of pioneering interactive technologies located at Heraklion international airport “Nikos Kazantzakis”, realized by the Institute of Computer Science of FORTH under the initiative of the Region of Crete.

Turn down the volume! Noise in everyday life is a significant and growing problem that, according to the World Health Organisation, is responsible for many healthy years of life lost [1]. And it is not just traffic,mobile devices or so-called personal music equipment that is responsible, but speech itself. Anyone unfortunate enough to spend much time at a public transport interchange or airport is assailed by loud, distorted and repetitive announcements. Keeping the volume high is the easy way to ensure that anyone listening gets the message, especially in noisy environments, but is it the smartest solution?

A USA-Greece collaboration of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory & Iowa State University and at the University of Crete & the Foundation for Research & Technology - Hellas (FORTH) in Greece have found a new way to create small magnets by using short laser light pulses. In this way, they were able to switch magnetism at least 1000 times faster than in current magnetic devices. Magnetic switching is used to encode information in hard drives, magnetic memories, and other computing devices. The discovery reported in the April 4 issue of Nature opens the door to terahertz (1012 hertz) memory speeds and moves magnetic switching to the fast lane.

In the context of the 38th meeting of the European Network of Computer Emergency Response Teams, which was held in Lisbon, Portugal on 28-30 January 2013, the Computer Emergency Response Team of FORTH (FORTHcert) was awarded the TERENA Trusted Introducer certification.

The European Commission has chosen Graphene as one of Europe’s first 10-year, 1,000 million euro FET flagships. The mission of Graphene is to take graphene and related layered materials from academic laboratories to society, revolutionize multiple industries and create economic growth and new jobs in Europe.

Craniosynistosis is a bone condition that can inhibit brain growth in children and affects 1 in 2200 births. Work published in the premier scientific journal Nature Genetics, identifies ERF haploinsufficiency as the genetic cause of a syndromic form of craniosynostosis, the ERF-associated craniosynostosis

Nektarios Tavernarakis, a Research Director at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of FORTH-Hellas, and a Professor-elect at the Medical School of the University of Crete was awarded today the Grant Academic Excellence Prize of the Empeirikeion Foundation

For a second, consecutive, year research results from the Photonic Materials and Devices Laboratory of FORTH-IESL headed by Dr Stavros Pissadakis, is highlighted in the December issue of Optics & Photonics News. This annual technology review is published under the auspices of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and lists the most exciting and significant research findings that characterized the passing year in Optics and Photonics.

George A. Garinis, Associate Professor of Genetics at the department of Biology, University of Crete and an affiliated Researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of FORTH- Hellas has been awarded today the prestigious EMBO Young Investigator award for his research achievements on delineating the functional role of Nucleotide Excision Repair factors in development and disease

Researchers of the Institute of Computer Science of FORTH (FORTH-ICS) were awarded with Honorable Mention for their work entitled: "Electronic Health Record: Luxury or Need?" The paper was presented in the 14th National Conference of Healthcare Management in Athens on 12-13 October 2012, organized by the Hellenic Association of Healthcare Management.