Nicosia Risk Forum 2020

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Virtual Event, 26th of November 2020

Preparing for the Next Pandemic – the important role of Civil Protection: A Regional View

Under the auspices of

Symposium Aim

Nicosia Risk Forum is an innovative event for the area of South-Eastern Europe, which brings together academic, industrial, governmental, policy, and other societal stakeholders with a significant interest in societal safety. Nicosia Risk Forum is organized under the auspices of HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus Dr. Nikos Christodoulides. Understandably, due to Co-Vid19 restrictions, #NRF2020 will take place virtually.

This year’s theme of #NRF2020 will focus on “Regional Collaboration in Societal Safety”. The Covid-19 pandemic and its severe worldwide implications have proven once more that the inherent risks of our increasingly complex and interconnected world significantly challenge the implementation of fundamental societal functions. As disasters have always been and will always be part of our lives, the way societies respond to them is certainly of critical importance. However, preventing such disasters from occurring, preparing for their possible occurrence, and mitigating their potential effects, is a matter of life and death. In these testing times, higher-level initiatives faced challenges in delivering solutions. Regional initiatives can provide support, much needed, at times of crises. Traditional manmade and natural disasters will continue to occur, coupled with the risks brought-on by the pandemic; societal safety and national security become an absolute necessity and regional collaboration a supporting net.

Man-made and natural catastrophes know no borders and the aim of this year’s #NRF2020 is to be the catalyst for the creation of a regional network of governmental organizations, research groups, universities, and research organizations interested in promoting societal safety.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its severe worldwide implications have proven once more that the inherent risks of our increasingly complex and interconnected world significantly challenge the implementation of fundamental societal functions. As disasters have always been and will always be part of our lives, the way societies respond to them is certainly of critical importance. However, preventing such disasters from occurring, preparing for their possible occurrence, and mitigating their potential effects, is a matter of life and death.

The 2020 version of the Nicosia Risk Forum takes a radical position, summarized in the following statement: “the next pandemic WILL happen, sooner or later”. It is therefore now the right time to analyze the lessons learned from the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and use our experience to discuss the preparedness measures which should be implemented in order to mitigate risks and reduce the effects of the next pandemic. Furthermore, the Forum will not restrict this analysis and discussion to the case of Cyprus, but it will assume a Regional View, focusing on existing cooperation aspects and the need for the development of novel mechanisms that will facilitate the exchange of communication and good practices between the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

The Nicosia Risk Forum 2020 will host an impressive array of stakeholders who will offer their views on its main theme of the Forum.

First and foremost, we are honored to announce that Dr. Nikos Christodoulides, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus, will deliver the closing Keynote Speech of the Forum on the topic of “Regional Collaboration in Societal Safety“.

CERIDES – Excellence in Innovation and Technology is a focal point for Security and Safety – related issues in South-Eastern Europe. CERIDES, during its short period of existence, has accumulated more than 4 (four) million Euros in competitive research funding. It is currently participating in various international and national research projects which are being funded through schemes such as Horizon 2020, DG ECHO, DG HOME, DG JUSTICE, ISF, Marie Curie Training Networks, ERASMUS+, as well as funding schemes of the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.

The 3^rd ‘Nicosia Risk Forum’ will take place online on the 26th of November 2020. Full information and a detailed agenda of the event will follow soon.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus

“The Nicosia Risk Forum 2020 provides the platform for an array of stakeholders –hailing from government, academia, and the private sector– to exchange views and experiences, making it a truly multi-disciplinary event that produces a high level of discourse at a timely juncture.

This well-structured forum becomes truly essential since it makes stakeholders consider why risk analysis is important, why it is, or should be, at the core of statecraft, and why political leadership must be in a position to assess the cost and benefit of their decisions before these are made. For all these reasons, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs actively supports the work of CERIDES and readily yields its auspices for this inspirational –and unique in nature– symposium.”

Dr. Nikos Christodoulides

Timetable

The timetable of the event is available here.

Keynote Speakers

H.E. Mr. Nikos Christodoulides
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus

Nikos Christodoulides was born on 6 December 1973 in Yeroskipou, Paphos.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Economics, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies from City University of New York, Queens College, with postgraduate studies in Political Science at New York University and Diplomatic Studies at the University of Malta. He also holds a Doctorate from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens.

He was a career diplomat between 1999 and 2013. During this time he served as Director of the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Spokesperson of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU in Brussels, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Cyprus in Greece, Director of the Office of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Consul General at the High Commission of the Republic of Cyprus in the United Kingdom.

Prior to his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 1 March 2018, he served as Director of the Diplomatic Office of the President of the Republic of Cyprus (2013-2018) and Government Spokesman (2014-2018).

He was a Lecturer and Research Associate at the Department of History and Archeology of the University of Cyprus between 2007 and 2010. He is the author of two books, Plans for Solution of the Cyprus Problem 1948-1978 (2009) and Relations between Athens and Nicosia and the Cyprus Problem, 1977-1988 (2013). He has also published extensively in domestic and international journals.

He is married to Philippa Karsera and has four daughters, Ioanna, Ekaterini, Despina-Maria, and Phoebe.

Dep Min Nikos Chardalias
Deputy Minister for Civil Protection and Crisis Management

Nikos Chardalias was appointed Deputy Minister for Civil Protection and Crisis Management on 15th March of 2020, by the decision of the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

He was born in 1968, in Athens, Greece. He studied Political Sciences and International Relations at Kent University (UK), specializing in Regional Development and European Integration. He served as Secretary-General for Civil Protection (19 July 2019 – 14 March 2020), was elected for three consecutive 4-year periods (2003-2014) Mayor of the Municipality of Byron, Attica Region, Greece. He was President of the Association for the Protection and Development of Ymittos Mountain, Attica Region (2003-2014), President of the Civil Protection Committee at the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece – KEDE (2006-2012), and Executive Secretary at the Region of Central Greece (2014-2016).

He speaks English and French.

Ms. Vivi Michou
Director General of DG ECHO

Since 16 January 2020, Ms. Michou is the Director-General of the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations of the European Commission.

Between March 2018 and January 2020, Ms. Michou was the Director-General of the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission.

She joined the European Commission in 1995 and has worked in several Commission departments.

Between November 2015 and February 2018 she held the position of the Deputy Secretary-General in charge of coordinating the Commission’s work on migration and security as well as steering a number of other policy areas, such as the Digital Single Market, Transport and Mobility, and Institutional and Administrative Policies within the Commission.

Between October 2014 and October 2015, she was the Acting Director-General in the Commission’s Justice and Consumers department where she was also the Director for Civil Justice. Before that, she headed various units in the Directorate-General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology, and also worked in the Directorates-General for Enterprise and for the Internal Market.

Zoi Dorothea Pana, MD, MSc, PhD

Zoi Dorothea is a Specialist in Pediatrics, Lecturer at the European University in Cyprus with Scholar Fellowship training in Hospital Epidemiology, Infection Control and Antimicrobial Stewardship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital USA (HEIC Department, JHH). She has also collaborated with the Armstrong Institute of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in several projects related to Patient Safety and Quality. She holds two MSc, one in Medical Research Methodology and Statistics (AUTH, GR), and one in Nanotechnology, Nanosciences and Innovative Medicine at the Department of Physics (AUTH, GR). She has been working as Senior Clinical Assessor at the National Greek Notified Body for Quality in Health EKAPTY and as Scientific Member of the Health Technology Committee (HTA) at the Ministry of Heath in Greece. She holds a PhD in infectious diseases in immunocompromised children with leukemia (AUTH, GR). She is currently member of the COVID-19 Scientific Committee at the Ministry of Health in Cyprus.

Constantinos Tsioutis

Internal Medicine specialist trained in infection prevention, infection control and antimicrobial stewardship. He is Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the School of Medicine, European University Cyprus, Faculty in the European Training Programme in Infection Prevention and Control of the European Committee on Infection Control (EUCIC), member of the Cyprus National Committee for development and implementation of Protocols and Clinical Guidelines and the COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Board of the Cyprus Ministry of Health, and serves as infection control consultant in various hospitals and organizations in Cyprus.

Georgios Nikolopoulos, DDS, MSc, PhD, FACE, CPH

Dr Nikolopoulos is visiting Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Medical School of the University of Cyprus (UCY). He is a graduate of Dentistry from the Dental School of the National and Kapodistrian University (NKUA) of Athens, Greece and holds a MSc in Biostatistics, and a PhD in Epidemiology (HIV and Hepatitis B virus coinfection) from the Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics of the Medical School of the same university. His 18-month post-doctoral fellowship was funded, following international competition, by the International AIDS Society and the United States (US) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), took place at the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI) in New Yok, US and in Athens, Greece, and combined training on epidemiology, social networks, and qualitative research. Dr Nikolopoulos is fellow member of the American College of Epidemiology (FACE) and certified in Public Health by the US National Board of Public Health Examiners (CPH). He worked as an expert in epidemiology at the Greek Center for Disease Control and Prevention for nearly 15 years with involvement in the epidemiology and prevention of HIV, and in public health responses against SARS, West Nile Virus infection, and pandemic A (H1N1) influenza. He was site principal investigator of a US-NIDA study on HIV prevention and is currently leading a study in Cyprus on environmental epidemiology that is funded by the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation. Dr Nikolopoulos has published around 150 peer-reviewed articles, has an h-index of 36, and serves as member of the editorial board, academic editor or topic editor of scientific journals including Pathogens, PLoS ONE, Journal of Clinical Medicine, Data in Brief, Epidemiologia, and the Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration. He is currently serving as member of the Scientific Committee advising the Minister of Health in the Republic of Cyprus on issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Nikolas Mastroyiannopoulos has extensive experience in Biomedical research, Molecular and Cellular Biology, in which he holds a doctoral degree. He has been working in the Department of Molecular Genetics, Function and Therapy at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics since 2006 and in 2012, he was appointed Lecturer and later Assistant Professor at the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine (CSMM). For the last 15 years, Dr Mastroyiannopoulos has been working in various basic and translational biomedical research projects with academic and commercial value. Furthermore, during this period, Dr Mastroyiannopoulos had the supervision of numerous PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows. He has established national and international collaborations with various academic and research institutions around the world as well as a solid publication record with several peer-review publications and book chapters. Dr Mastroyiannopoulos has achieved a number of grants in his field as principle investigator or collaborator for national and international funding bodies as well as private initiatives. His research focused on developing Gene Therapeutic approaches for Muscular Dystrophies and genetic heart disorders. He has also served as an Elected Board Member of the Cyprus Society of Human Genetics as well as a national representative, in a number of European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) actions. Dr Mastroyiannopoulos has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Research and Innovation Foundation’s (RIF) Board of Directors, following his appointment by the President of the Republic of Cyprus as the Chief Scientist for Research and Innovation in March 2020.

Dr Christos Dimas is the Deputy Minister for Development and Investments in charge of Research and Technology. He is a lawyer and Member of the Hellenic Parliament representing New Democracy in the district of Korinthia.Before entering politics, he worked in the private sector as a business consultant for The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

He was born on the 29th of May 1980. He graduated from the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Queen Mary University in London. He completed his Master Degree in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He then finished his PhD in European Political Economy from the LSE, with a scholarship from the Alexander Onassis Foundation. Parallel to his studies, he worked as a correspondent in London for Apogevmatini newspaper while also practicing journalism at the BBC. At the age of 25 he was a teaching assistant at the LSE while teaching at ICON College in the University of Leicester and was a research fellow at the Jean Monnet European Center of Excellence. He was elected as an MP in the district of Korinthia, with New Democracy in the May 2012 elections and has been re-elected ever since.

In his spare time he enjoys playing football and basketball and reading history books. He is married to the lawyer Nicoleta Syrengela and they have one daughter and a son.

Ms. Claude EL HAJAL is the Ambassador of Lebanon to Cyprus since 2017. She was born in Jal El Dib, Lebanon and completed her studies for the Bachelor in Administrative & Political Sciences. She speaks Arabic, French, English and has also served as an Ambassador to Lebanon in Ukraine from 2013 till 2017, was a councellor in the Embassy of Lebanon in Egypt, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Lebanon in Serbia, and secretary in the Embassy of Lebanon in Jordan.

She has attended several Cultural, Economical and Political Congresses and conferences during her tenures. and have participated in the preparation of the Francophonie Summit in Lebanon in 2002.

Program Committee

Professor Georgios Boustras, Professor in Risk Assessment, Director, Center for Risk and Decision Science (CERIDES), European University, Cyprus
Dr. Christos Dimopoulos, Co-Director, Center for Risk and Decision Science (CERIDES), European University Cyprus

Organizing Committee

Dr. Konstantinos Katzis, Associate Professor, Center for Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus
Dr. Demetris Hadjiloucas, Associate Professor, Center for Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus
Dr Pericles Leng Cheng, Lecturer, Center of Excellence in Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus
Dr. Yianna Danidou, Research Fellow, Center for Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus
Dr. Yiannis Anyfantis, Research Fellow, Center for Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus
Mr. Michalis Papamichael, Honorary Research Fellow, Center for Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus and Noble Energy
Cleo Varianou Mikellidou, Research Associate, Center for Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus
Mr. Michalis Georgiou, Research Associate, Center for Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus
Ms. Olga Nicolaidou, Ph.D. Candidate, Center for Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus
Mr Paris Messios, PhD Candidate, Center of Excellence in Risk and Decision Sciences (CERIDES), European University Cyprus

Call for presentation of projects and technologies

#NRF2019 scientific brokerage part was a big success with over 35 EU and Nationally Funded projects in the wider area of Civil Protection presented and discussed. We would like to invite you to contribute this year as well. Please email the title of your project and a 250 word abstract to [email protected] by October the 28th, 15 minute presentation slots are provided.