'To The Point', a webinar series hosted by Tech.eu, on Wednesday focused on Cyprus’s innovation ecosystem and its continuous growth as an innovation and technology centre.

The government has been committed to growing Cyprus into a hub for innovation and provide an investor friendly and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Cyprus recently established the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, with the main focus of planning and implementing a digital strategy that in return will support and promote the research, innovation, and digital policy for the benefit of the island.

Speaking at the event, Dr. Nikolas Mastroyiannopoulos, the National Chief Scientist for Research & Innovation, said: “We have a growing local R&I ecosystem with nine universities, eight research institutions with six centres of excellence incubators. We have more than 200 startups at the moment and the number is still growing. As a first step, in the past five years we have funded the research and innovation ecosystem with more than €150m.”

Mr Mastroyiannopoulos added that collaboration on a local and international level is lacking, and more should be done to support this. Cyprus’s government focus will remain on providing continuous support to the island’s innovative companies and start-ups, and increase research and development activity with acquisitions between the two. The government is designing its new programmes with a strong focus on innovation and further investment for SMEs and research institutions, which will be an important stepping stone in the progress.

Victoria Kostic-Nola, Founder of VIZ VENTURES, a boutique consultancy based in Cyprus, said that this is the time for Cyprus to realise its potential in the field and take advantage of the momentum that it currently has.

She said: “An important momentum is that we have a vast number of tech professionals, digital nomads, looking to set up and find their creative place under the sun. Cyprus has this ability to attract various nationalities, various experts in different fields to actually create this multicultural hub.”

Victoria Kostic-Nola is also the Founder of INTENCITY (International Enterprising Community), which connects founders for mentoring and business development support, and explores collaborations locally and abroad for building successful innovative new ventures in Cyprus. Currently, the Community is still growing, with around 50 members from 25 different countries and nationalities. “You can imagine what this means in a little place like Cyprus. It's a blend, it's gender balanced, and it's a mix of tech and business people, collaborating and participating in further building the Cyprus tech and startup ecosystem, ”she added.

The event also heard that one of the challenges of the European and global ecosystem is the battle for talent, especially in the tech sector. Marios Tannousis, Deputy Director General of Invest Cyprus, spoke about the easy access to local and international talent in Cyprus.

“41% of 25 to 74 year olds have tertiary education in Cyprus, which is above the EU’s average. The numbers will continue growing as we are now in discussions with universities for the increased need for tech talent and the government is also providing incentives for talent to be able to come to Cyprus from non-EU jurisdictions,” he said.

One of Invest Cyprus’s main strategic objectives is ICT Headquartering and supporting businesses on the ground throughout the entire process. There are already 12,000 tech professionals on the island, with a number of international tech companies having chosen Cyprus to expand their operations or set up their headquarters. The access to local, EU and non-EU talent, immigration and relocation incentives and the quality of life, are only a few elements that make Cyprus an ideal destination for tech professionals and have led to more and more tech companies choosing the country.

Other speakers at the event included Startup Cyprus and European Startup Network co-founder Stavriana Kofteros, Argyris Argyrou founder of Foody, Yiannis Tinis CEO of Amdocs Cyprus Centre, Angela Panayiotou, Manager IDEA Innovation Center at Bank of Cyprus, Alexis Pantazis co-founder and executive director of insurtech scale-up Hellas Direct and Ecosystem builder and growth marketing specialist Panis Pieri.