The activities of “Contact Point” at FORTH is an original series of public discussions, each featuring a FORTH scientist and a distinguished artist. “Contact Point” brings Science and Culture into Creative Dialogue, fostering open and meaningful communication of science through art.
The third event of the series, entitled “Back to the Future: When Yesterday meets Tomorrow”, will take place on Monday, January 26, 2026, at 18:00 at the Cultural Conference Center of Heraklion, in the Experimental Theatre Hall, co-organized with DEPANAL S.A.

Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB-FORTH) and the University of Crete, together with collaborators from Greece, Europe, the USA, and India, have discovered a novel role of albumin, the most abundant protein in human blood, in protecting against a rare and often deadly fungal infection called mucormycosis. The study is published in Nature.

On Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at the Old Parliament Hall in Athens, His Excellency the President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr. Konstantinos Tasoulas, presented the Excellence in University Teaching Award in memory of Vassilis Xanthopoulos and Stefanos Pnevmatikos to Professor and Rector of Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Christina Koulouri.

FORTH received major distinctions at the Healthcare Business Awards 2025, a prestigious event celebrating excellence, innovation, and best practices across the healthcare sector.

On Friday, November 21, 2025, the Ionian Academy in Corfu hosted a grand ceremony awarding Professor Nektarios Tavernarakis an Honorary Doctorate by the Department of Informatics of Ionian University.

The French Ambassador to Greece, Ms. Laurence Auer, paid an official visit to FORTH on Monday, December 1, 2025. She was accompanied by the Scientific and University Cooperation Attaché & Deputy Director of the French Institute of Greece, Mr. Matthieu Abgrall, the Honorary Consul of France in Heraklion, Ms. Sofia Tsantiraki, and the Director of the Hellenic-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ms. Aikaterini Manali.

The Natural History Museum in Heraklion came alive on Saturday, November 22, 2025, as 40 secondary education teachers from 18 different schools and the Heraklion Science Labs Centers (EKFE) gathered for the inaugural education event “Youth for Diagnostics”. This first-of-its-kind initiative invites students to step into the role of scientists, promoting their active involvement in real research efforts through the growing field of Citizen Science.

The event will take place on Monday, 24 November 2025, at 19:00, at the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce & Industry. It will include two interesting lectures and the presentation of the “Miltiadis Karatzis” Award to a PhD candidate at FORTH, which comes with a prize of 5,000 euros.

For the ninth consecutive year, the Public Cord Blood Bank of Crete, part of the Hematology Clinic of PAGNI, organized the Stem Cell Awareness Week, held from 10–14 November 2025, in alignment with World Cord Blood Day on November 15.

Τhe Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH) launches a new initiative entitled “IDEON: FORTH’s Creativity Club for Educators”, implemented within the framework of the action “epikoinonITE” (a Greek acronym for: Science-Society-FORTH) and held under the auspices of the Region of Crete. The IDEON Creativity Club for Educators is addressed to educators of all educational levels who wish to integrate creativity into their teaching practice, either with or without the use of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. At the same time, it aims to foster a dynamic learning community that learns, experiments, and evolves collectively.