Official visit to Greece by State Secretary Martina Hirayama to focus on education, research, innovation and archaeology

On 19 July, Martina Hirayama, State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation, held official talks in Athens with the Minister for Development and Investment, Adonis Georgiadis, and with the Minister for Education and Religious Affairs, Niki Kerameus. She also visited the an excavation site of the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece (ESAG), which has received federal support since 2008. State Secretary Hirayama's meetings with Development and Investment Minister Adonis Georgiadis, who is responsible among other things for research and innovation, and Education and Religious Affairs Minister Niki Kerameus, provided an opportunity for both sides to commend the proven bilateral cooperation between Switzerland and Greece. The two countries have extensive relations, particularly in research and innovation, on the one hand in the context of the European Union's Research Framework Programmes (FP) and on the other through their membership in international research organisations. For example, Swiss and Greek researchers cooperated on over 700 projects as part of Horizon 2020. In these terms, Greece ranks 11th among Swiss partner countries. Cooperation is particularly strong in the areas of information and communication technologies, European infrastructures and Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions.