Consortium

CYI is a non-profit research and educational institution of international composition, governed by a Board of Trustees comprising world-renown scientists and prominent political and entrepreneurial Leaders. The Institute is characterized by a novel philosophy on interdisciplinary research and education, and cutting-edge infrastructure to materialize it, which support a scientific, technological and innovative orientation aiming at world-class standards of excellence. Research at CyI is carried out in cross-disciplinary Centres that address problems of great scholarly relevance, global significance and regional focus. Shared infrastructures incorporating state-of-the- art technology support the research activities of the four CyI-Research-Centres, the Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC), the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC), the Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC) and the Climate and Atmosphere Research Center (CARE-C). The Energy, Environment and Water Research Centre (EEWRC) was established as the first research centre of CyI in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The EEWRC focuses on societally relevant issues of Energy & Renewables, Water and Natural Resources. The Energy Division of the EEWRC is embedded in a range of relevant European and International Networks and committees such as ESTELA, EERA, ESFRI WG etc. It focuses on achieving a low carbon economy via the adoption of measures for energy efficiency and the employment of renewable energies to reduce the dependence on hydrocarbon energy sources. The Energy Division consists of a Sustainable Built Environment Group (SuBE), an Energy Planning and Analysis Group (EPA) and an Advanced Renewable Energy Systems (ARES) group (www.energy.cyi.ac.cy/) from which the researchers participating within SmartHelio are members. The ARES group is the leader in CST research in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) region, and among others, it operates the flagship ‘’Platform for Research, Observation and TEchnological Applications in Solar energy’’ (PROTEAS) facility research infrastructure (https://energy.cyi.ac.cy/facilities/proteas/). This facility will provide the perfect controlled experimental platform for facilitating future development and high TRL testing of the proposed technology. PROTEAS uniquely combines ideal environmental conditions with a seaside environment for research, development and testing of technologies related to CST power, solar thermal energy and thermal desalination of sea water. The versatile facility provides a test bed under realistic conditions for testing novel components, systems and technologies, both for research and industry. In the spirit of international collaboration, the facility is open to the international scientific community on a merit based priority scheme and it is part of several European projects such as INSHIP, SFERA III and recently of StoRIES, providing transnational access to researchers for research and training. Furthermore, PROTEAS provides services such as components testing both for research and industry. Moreover, ARES is operating the Athalassa’s Heliostat Testing Facility (ATH Lab.) (https://energy.cyi.ac.cy/facilities/athalassa-testing/), which is an advanced testing facility for heliostats and novel technologies related to heliostat tracking. Currently the facility is equipped with two heliostat test benches in an outdoor environment. A multifunctional Lambertian fully instrumented target is part of the facility which, among others, can qualitative and quantitatively obtain flux and temperature contours and calculate the power sent from heliostats. In addition, the laboratory has access to local meteorological data, including DNI, thus providing the perfect platform for assessment of the performance of the pilot smart heliostat

NK Metal Company (www.nkmetal.com.cy/) is an SME that serves the steel industry (since 1977) by providing standard and custom-designed steel structures as well as cold-formed steel sections, polyurethane insulated sandwich panels and boards for several applications. The company has been successfully involved in the implementation of several funded projects in the past 10 years. Through the European Structural Funds (ESF), the company has established a state-of-the-art and fully equipped internal production control laboratory in 2011 (130k Euro). Also through the ESF, the company has recently also implemented the following innovative projects that were part of the Business Innovation Enhancement Plan of the Cyprus’s Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry (MECI): 1) Development of a prototype system for recycling and reusing Polyurethane and Polystyrene waste, providing the market with 2 innovative thermal insulating mortars (2014, Budget: 212.5k Euro). For this project, the company received the Cyprus Innovation Award (Manufacturing Sector – 2014) and the Eco-Innovation Award of the European Innovation Platform, Inneon (2016). Today, NKMC exports some products in China and Malaysia, 2) Modification of an old polyurethane slabs/boards production line (PLAMA machine,1994) for production of a new innovative thermal insulated polyurethane board named THERMOCOOL, which is used as a thermal facing in new or existing buildings (2017, 228.4k Euro), 3) Integration, optimization, and international expansion of the prototype system described in point 1 (2019, 272.2k Euro)
Recently the company has launched a training centre dedicated exclusively to the construction sector. This project has been included in the “Human Resources Development Infrastructure and Human Resources Development Enhancement Scheme” (through the European Structural Funds) of the Human Resources Development Authority of Cyprus. Budget: 71k Euro. The company has successfully participated in the aforementioned European Programs, implementing the project on the basis of requirements, delivering all the necessary deliverables, and absorbing the full amount of sponsorship each time. This demonstrates the company’s consistency in the implementation of every new project. It is also noted that - in every project - NKMC was able to contribute financially. Its own financial contribution was directly paid from its own funds and resources. For the development of those products and services, the company has developed corporations with several Universities / Foreign Research Organizations / Companies /Accredited Laboratories. NKMC uses several platforms/tools and participates in international trade fairs to promote all those innovative products and services internationally. All the infrastructures (internal machine shop, internal lab, production equipment, training center), and other company resources will be available for utilization in the proposed project.​

NOVATEX (www.novatexsolutions.eu) is an SME, established in 1999 in Cyprus by a team of enthusiastic engineers and today is operating in the fields of: (b) Internet of Things (IoT) Smart Devices and systems: Development of Low power devices intended for smart applications including smart cities and smart agriculture – The company has developed own prototypes and these are on the way to be used in pilot studies (with mapping using GIS technologies) in Cyprus and collaboration with local authorities, (a) Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) services: by providing Web Hosting / VPS / Dedicated/Cloud. These services enable the company to utilise these services for various projects for real time data processing, storage by using mainly open source software, (c) Robotics: by providing hardware and advice to students Academia and research and also supporting since 2013 as a coordinator of the European Robotics week in Cyprus and supporting various events and competitions and also promoting electronics and other products through a dedicated website (www.robotaki.com), (d) Applied Research and Innovation: since 2006, Novatex has been involved in applied research in the fields in ICT, Data acquisition, wireless data transmission, data analysis, mapping of data, and visualisation, automated image processing, robotics and renewable energy, (e) Novatex has been involved in dozens of projects (either for research or commercial purposes) that involved system integration (sensors, measurements, automation, actuators, switches etc) developing complete solutions – Hardware selection and related development as well as software development for controlling the systems.