Greece is a small county, but it has a track record and strong capabilities in research and technology development, especially in electronic engineering and across the microelectronics-intensive information, computing and telecommunications domains.

In 2001, there were 55,626 researchers (up from 30,500 in 1993) in such fields as telecommunications, microelectronics, multimedia, computer science, computer networks and software engineering, attracting the interest of many multinational companies and producing an increasing number of high-quality publications.

But Greece's R&D system, which is heavily university-driven, shows major imbalances and discontinuities among the academic, business and government sectors. If the recently launched Hellenic Technology Cluster Initiative in Athens [see Greece frames future in technology cluster] is to reach its full potential, structural reform is essential.

The Competivieness Report of the European Semiconductor Industry Association includes a call for increased investment in Europe to 'unleash Europe's R&D capabilities," saying "Europe must spend 3 percent or more of European GDP for R&D."

It also call upon Europe to open its educational system 'to work for industry," and to "enable more and stronger multiple partnership."

According to the Ministry of Development in Athens, the gross domestic expenditure on research and technological development is at the level of 0.5 percent of GNP versus the EU average of close to 2 percent.

The R&TD index for businesses is still at a very low level, 0.13 percent of GNP in 1997, putting Greece in joint last place with Portugal in the EU. The picture and indexes concerning applications for the grant of patents are similar.

Yet Greece's research and development system and high-quality development skill are extraordinary, as confirmed by its proportional participation in the Framework Program of the EU. Greece provides 0.5 percent of the research potential of the EU, but its participation in the respective programs of the Framework Program ranges from 1 percent to 8 percent.

However, here too there is a preponderance of small contributions made to larger projects administered by units in other member states of the EU. In other words, Greece has done an enviable job of designing, developing and supporting technology programs for other EU countries, but it's been a laggard when it comes to developing and deploying homegrown innovation and entrepreneurial-driven technology business within Greece itself.

But structural change is in the works within Greece's public and private sectors, and changes are being driven at all levels: political, academic, commercial and legal to change the current system.

To allow Greece to meet the challenges in today's increasingly competitive technology landscape, the ministry is promoting policies aimed at establishing a suitable climate for private investment and promoting greater cooperation in research and technology cooperation between the public and private sectors. (see related story R&D reform to spur competitiveness).

The result: government cooperation with the private sector is one of the key engines driving technology development and business formation change in Greece.

Its not clear how long it will take the nation to reach its own or the Hellenic Semiconductor Industry Association's objectives, but thanks to grass-roots industry organizations like the HSIA, which seek to improve the climate for technology innovation, it's headed in the right direction, according to some industry observers.

Ministry of Development, General Secretary for Research and Technology Ioannis A. Tsoukalas

The Ministry of Development's Ioannis A. Tsoukalas, General Secretary for Research and Technology, a key policy-making arm of the government, has been a driving force in efforts to reform Greece's antiquated R&D system. Much of this effort is focused on improving the climate for public-private cooperation.

Tsoukalas, who was educated in Greece and did post-doctorate studies in solid-state physics in the UK, France, and in the United States at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been a project leader in a significant number of R&D projects financed by the Greek state and the European Commission.

Mindful of Greece's contribution to both the academic and industrial advances in electronics at home, in Europe and in the U.S. and Canada, Tsoukalas, like HTCI's champion Vassilios Makios, both nurture a life-long vision of a more Silicon Valley-like entrepreneurial climate for their country, and for a new generation of Greek entrepreneurs.

"The main asset of Greece is human capital," Tsoukalas asserted confidently, but quickly noted that "many of the forces of excellence in Greece have been hidden below the overall picture."

In an interview at the Ministry of Development (MOD) in Athens, Tsoukalas referred to what he termed antiquated notions about the role of academia and university research within the Greek university system. Greece's failure to modernize and reform this system has held back the commercialization of much Greek-developed innovation and research developments, he said.

"Greece has an ideal notion of an academic university that no longer exists," Tsoukalas said, noting that the MOD and the Greek government are just emerging from an intensive institution-wide examination of scientific and technology policy within Greece. The General Secretariat for Research and Technology is writing its final report and plans to publicly disclose "a new law for research and technology" at the end of November that will be the MOD's official recommendations to parliament and Greece's prime minister for broad ranging reforms.

Emerging from that debate, according to Tsoukalas, is a more modern view of university-funded research and the commercial role of the university in society. It has led to an official realization that if science and technology are to be directed toward the well being of society, "it can not be done without partnerships with free market forces," and with "academia showing how knowledge can be used as a good for entrepreneurs."

Though he did not outline the specific pending policy changes the ministry will seek, Tsoukalas noted that Greece's new R&D legal framework will be closely modeled on the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to, according to: "promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense."

Greece has also looked to technology and innovation boosting in Finland and Holland for technology policy guidance. Both of these small countries have developed effective programs to promote public-private cooperation to drive innovation and a knowledge-based economy. Greece's new initiatives will mix the best elements of all three systems.

"The public consultation has ended," Tsoukalas said, adding that the text of a new framework for R&D policy making and funding "will be presented to Parliament at the end of November.

Throughout government and industry, and in interviews with many individual observers in and around Athens, there was no shortage of skepticism and doubt about the prospects of changing the status quo in Greece. But it's not putting a dent in the HTCI's or the MOD's determination or confidence.

"I think it will work," Tsoukalas said, noting that it will take time to implement and make changes, but "it will have an impact and in three years we will have results and observable, quantifiable and qualifiable results."

Tsoukalas, together with the MOD's Special Secretary for Competitiveness Spyridon Efstathopoulos, were two of HTCI's earliest and strongest proponents. The Ministry of Development, through its General Secretariat for Research & Technology and its Operational Programme "Competitiveness, endorsed the microelectronics area as the pilot ("test case ) of Phase 1 of the new cluster initiative.

"It has been planned very carefully," Tsoukalas said of the cluster initiative and HSIA member participation, noting that the grass-roots industry-driven effort has a better chance of success than many previous, top-down, government-funded projects.

"We have been failing till now," Tsoukalas said, adding that HTCI "has inherent parameters of being in the forefront, and I expect that it will succeed," adding "it will be a milestone for the Greek entrepreneur."