Collaboration and networking

Since its establishment (in 2006), the iSTLab has established liaisons with a variety of academic institutions, research centers and industrial outlets at regional, national and international levels. At regional level, iSTLab collaborators include the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the city of Heraklion, the University of Crete, the Technological University of Crete, the Centre for Research and Technology of Crete as well as industrial outlets such as ISP providers (Forthnet S.A.) and high-technology firms in competitive service industries such as destination management companies (Anixe S.A.) and organic farming alliances (ΒΙΑΝΑΜΕ). Collaboration takes several forms including joint participation in R&D projects, contractual agreements, organization of workshops and trade-fairs. Several of the partners offer industrial placement to iSTLab graduate students.

At national level, the iSTLab participates regularly in annual events of national R&D societies such as conferences, workshops and thematic meetings. At times there are more focused activities with academic departments and research centers targeted to promoting mobility of research staff and targeted programmes of research. Recent liaisons of this sort have taken place with the University of Piraeus, Department of Informatics, the University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Telecommunications and the University of Thessaly, Department of Special Education.

At international level, the iSTLab has achieved a firm position in designated research fields and application areas. iSTLab collaborates with various academic institutions in launching and supporting multi-disciplinary PhD programmes, joint research proposals and targeted research actions such as publications, special issues in archival journals and standardization activities. Recent examples of such liaisons are with the UCL in Belgium, the Euromed Ecole de Management in France, the European Institute of Oncology, the Collaborative International Research Centre for Universal Access (CIRCUA) in UK, etc. Furthermore, the iSTLab participates (on behalf of the Center for Technological Research of Crete) in the EuroCancerComs network, which is funded by FP 7 Science in Society.