Nektarios Tavernarakis, Research Director at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), and Professor at the Medical School of the University of Crete, was elected Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

The 1st Prize in the category “Digital Literacy in Science Education” at the 11th Science on Stage Europe 2019 Festival was awarded, to members of the Biophotonics and Molecular Imaging Group of the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser of FORTH. This year’s festival was entitled “Skills for the future” and was held in Cascais Portugal from 31 October – 3 November 2019.

The Hellenic Data Protection Authority, the Foundation for Research and Technology- Hellas (FORTH) and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) successfully organized a training session for high school students entitled “Protecting Our Personal Data- The GDPR and the 40 Thieves” which took place on Tuesday, November 5th at the SNFCC Book Tower.

Research conducted by an international team of astronomers, published in the international scientific journal Nature, revealed an enormous nebula around an extreme form of a merging galaxy.

This year, FORTH’s Institute of Astrophysics introduced the "Kylafis Lecture”, in recognition of the outstanding 35-year scientific and administrative contribution of the Emeritus Professor of the University of Crete and Collaborating Faculty Member of FORTH, Mr. Nikolaos Kylafis. His unremitting efforts to preserve and develop the scientific excellence in the field of Astrophysics, at FORTH and the University of Crete, have played a key role in the success of the Astrophysics team, which was recognized by the founding of FORTH’s Institute of Astrophysics in 2018.

The 12th FORTH Scientific Retreat, organized under the auspices of His Excellency the President of the Hellenic Republic Mr. Prokopios Pavlopoulos, took place at the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (ICE-HT) in Patras, on October 15-16 2019.

The Hellenic Bioinformatics Scientific Society and the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) organized an International Conference entitled "Precision Medicine, Biodiversity and Genomic Biology" with the Region of Crete as co-organizing authority and sponsor.

The Center for eHealth Applications and Services of the Institute of Computer Science of FORTH received the GOLD Healthcare Business Award in the category ‘e-Health: Digital applications for the management/ support of health units’ for its Integrated Care SolutionsTM application suite.