December 30, 2025
The past year marked a particularly important period for the Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications (IIT) at NCSR Demokritos (NCSRD), characterised by sustained progress across research, innovation, education, training, outreach and institutional leadership. Developments at European, national and organisational level collectively reinforced the Institute’s strategic role within the research ecosystem of NCSRD and beyond.
Strategic initiatives, infrastructure and innovation
A particularly strategic development during 2025 was IIT’s involvement in PHAROS the Greek AI Factory, the largest national Artificial Intelligence initiative, which officially kicked off during the year.
Significant advances were also recorded in cybersecurity and digital infrastructure. Through the Connectivity, Optimisation, Responsive, Infrastructures, Energy Efficiency & Security (CORE) research group IIT successfully launched the second AGRARIAN Open Call and initiated the EDF CITADEL Range project in November 2025. Through CITADEL, the Institute will further develop advanced cybersecurity tools and certification frameworks for cyber ranges, strengthening security, resilience and trust.
In parallel, IIT continued to play a leading role in next-generation networking research. Through the FutuRe cOmmunication NeTworks (FRONT) research group , lead by Dr Koumaras, the B5G/6G Athens experimentation platform was further extended as a large-scale experimental facility, integrating Beyond 5G network infrastructure with an orchestrated computing continuum based on the aerOS Meta-OS.
Research Groups and scientific advances
Environmental resilience and climate security research featured prominently with IIT hosting the Final Event of the Horizon 2020 TREEADS project in May 2025 at NCSR Demokritos. Bringing together 48 European partners, the project delivered a holistic ecosystem for wildfire prevention, detection, response and post-fire restoration. Through the Integrated Systems Laboratory (ISL) research group and the scientific supervision of Dr Kyriazanos, IIT contributed AI-based fire management and environmental analytics, in close collaboration with Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences & Technology, Energy & Safety (INRASTES)
The Wireless Communications Laboratory (WiCom Lab) has successfully designed and implemented a Ka-band (28 GHz) phased-array antenna targeting user terminal–to–Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication scenarios. Within the ETHER project (Self-Evolving Terrestrial / Non-Terrestrial Hybrid Networks) the antenna was developed in collaboration with Akronic, an SME located at the Lefkippos Technology Park, strengthening academia–industry cooperation and technology transfer. Calibration and characterization measurements are currently being carried out in the Institute’s antenna measurement anechoic chamber.
TREEADS Final Event
The Intelligent Science and Engineering (INSANE) research group contributed high-impact research on frugal and data-efficient AI, with publications in Machine Learning: Science and Technology, Digital Discovery, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Chemical Review and other leading journals. The group also gained further recognition as an innovation leader, Dr Christoforos Rekatsinas entering the list of 20-under-40 list for Industry 4.0 in Greece, following multiple awards for the AngelFish (marine pollution cleanup) project. The group also contributed to the“People with Disabilities Pioneers in AI” project (in collaboration with SciFY) , by offering machine learning annotation tasks for people with disabilities to annotate, allowing them to co-create a more inclusive AI setting and offering them a possible work alternative.
The Document Image Analysis (DIA) research group presented significant research results for improving the OCR accuracy of old Greek documents using Large Language Models (LLMs) with publications in the 25th ACM Symposium on Document Engineering – DocEng2025, as well in the 29th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries – TPDL2025. The group also contributed to the “D-AI-LECT – Digital Analysis and Recognition of Handwritten Documents of Greek Dialects” project funded by Archimedes (Center for Research in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Algorithms, Athena Research Center) by offering tools for the recognition of old Greek handwritten documents.
Publications, patents and flagship conferences
The Document Intelligence Centre of Excellence (DICE)research group further strengthened IIT’s footprint in applied AI, receiving a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its system for automatically tagging documents. This achievement was complemented by a major publication in ACM Computing Surveys, and by DICE’s continued presence at 6th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance (ICAIF), where two papers were presented reaffirming its sustained commitment to contributing to the AI-for-finance community year after year.
IIT’s international research excellence was also highlighted in December 2025 through participation in the Neural Information Processing Systems Conference -NeurIPS, in San Diego, where Dr Ioannis Kakogeorgiou‘s paper “Boosting Generative Image Modeling via Joint Image-Feature Synthesis” was selected as a Spotlight presentation, placing it among the top 3.2% of submissions.
IIT also maintained a strong presence at European Conference on Networks and Communications -EUCNC, in Poznań, where the FutuRe cOmmunication NeTworks (FRONT) research group , and Dr Koumaras delivered an Expert Talk on “AI and Trustworthiness”, addressing transparency, security and reliability in AI-driven 6G infrastructures.
Dr Koumaras at EUCNC 2025
The Complex Event Recognition (CER) research group reported major advances in logic-based and neurosymbolic methods, with publications in (Information and Computation) and stream reasoning with delayed effects (Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, JAIR). Conference publications spanned top-tier venues, addressing run-time optimization of formal event specifications (39th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence), temporal neurosymbolic learning and reasoning (34th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence –IJCAI), 22nd International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning –KR), sequencing in the run-time Event Calculus (28th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence –ECAI), run-time adaptation for complex event forecasting (19th ACM International Conference on Distributed and Event-Based Systems -DEBS), and the use of large language models for event pattern synthesis (28th International Conference on Extending Database Technology –EDBT). Notably, the group received a best paper award at the 19th International Conference on Neurosymbolic Learning and Reasoning –NeSy, for work on neurosymbolic verification.
Dr Tsilionis at KR 2025 conference
The Wireless Communications (WiCom) group reported solid research results in 6G networks operating at millimeter waves, through the publications in prestigious IEEE Transactions on Communications and Elsevier Computer Communications.
The Multimedia Analysis Group of the Computational Intelligence Lab (MagCIL) continued advancing research in multimodal machine learning throughout 2025, highlighted by the publication of a novel method for improved few-shot audio classification using Prototypical Contrastive Learning at MLSP 2025. Building on its long-standing expertise in audio analytics, the group also pushed forward state-of-the-art deep-learning-based song identification, developing a robust approach that performs reliably even under extremely noisy conditions. This methodology has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art, underscoring its scientific impact. In parallel, the team released an open benchmarking repository to support reproducible research and foster community engagement.
Moreover, IIT participated in the 28th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence –ECAI 2025, held in Bologna in October. Ten IIT researchers contributed to the main technical programme, workshops, tutorials and satellite events, covering a wide range of topics—from event calculus and streaming data analytics to trustworthy AI, biomedical data analysis, neuro-symbolic systems, and data engineering for Earth and space sciences. IIT researchers also played key roles in conference organisation and scientific leadership, with Dr Georgios Paliouras serving as an Area Chair, Dr Antonis Troumpoukis acting as Greece’s National Representative at the EurAI General Assembly, and Dr Nikos Katzouris receiving recognition as an Outstanding Programme Committee member.
Mr Aivalis and Ms Dampa at ECAI 2025
Trustworthy AI, ethics and policy engagement
The CHANGER project, coordinated by Dr Vicky Mollaki in close collaboration with members of the AI Politeia lab, strengthened its international presence through participation in ENRIO2025 conference, The British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association – BILETA,and the Neuroethics 2025 Conference, contributing to key discussions on research ethics, integrity and emerging technologies.
Dr V Mollaki at the ENRIO2025 conference
Through the AI Politeia lab, IIT maintained a strong international presence in Trustworthy AI research. Dr Ziouvelou was elected to the Steering Committee (SC) of the ETHICOMP, and served as a keynote panel member and thematic track chair at 22nd ETHICOMP in Portugal. During the same conference, Mrs Giouvanopoulou presented her research study as part of her PhD, “Identifying AI Challenges in Research Practices Through Research Ethics Reviews”. In addition, Dr Ziouvelou and Dr Katsamori contributed to the Council of Europe’s (CoE), feasibility study exploring the development of aEuropean Reference Framework for the Evaluation of Educational Technologies. They also participated in the 3rd Council of Europe Conference on AI and Education, where Dr Katsamori participated in an Policy Lab. The group further strengthened its international engagement through participation in the Trust-AI: European Workshop on Trustworthy AI (TRUST-AI) as part of the 28th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence – ECAI 2025, where Dr Davvetas presented the research of the group.
Biomedical and applied AI
IT maintained a strong international presence in biomedical and life-science AI research through the Biomedical and Health Informatics Team (BioHIT), which co-organised the 13th BioASQ Workshop held alongside Conference and Labs of the Evaluation Forum- CLEF in Madrid. Moreover, through its role in the smartHEALTH EDIH, BioHIT supported 15 companies and organisations with Test-Before-Invest services, facilitating the real-world testing and adoption of AI technologies in healthcare and life sciences.
Dr A. Krithara & Dr A. Nentidis at CLEF 2025
Education, training and social impact
In collaboration with IEEE SA, the Institute delivered the full certification programme for IEEE CertifAIEd™ AI Ethics Professionals, supporting practitioners in developing socially responsible AI systems aligned with the EU AI Act and European standardisation efforts.
IIT’s commitment to social impact and inclusion was reflected in the successful completion of the Erasmus+ Youth project JOBS4ALL, coordinated by the Net Media Lab. Focused on strengthening the employability and key competences of young people with disabilities through digital transformation and modernised youth work, the project was selected as a Good Practice in its 2025 evaluation, recognising both its quality and impact.
Additionally, IIT co-organised and participated in The Lyceum Project 2025 event, which was held at the Athens Conservatoire on Friday 20 June 2025. This year’s topic was “Children in the Age of AI” and brought together a diverse and high-profile group of scholars, practitioners, policymakers, artists, and civil society figures.
IIT together with the National Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics, through Dr Mollaki, co-organised and participated in the World Bioethics Day which was held at the premises of NCSRD, with the theme “Bioethical Challenges in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”.
Community life and institutional developments
The year also saw initiatives aimed at strengthening communication and community. IIT launched a new podcast series, “Tell us your [SCIENCE] story”, produced by the Human Resources Unit, featuring personal and professional narratives from researchers, with the first episodes highlighting newly tenured women scientists at the Institute. Beyond academic and professional activities, IIT colleagues came together through sport, with teams participating in major running events, including the Athens Half Marathon and, later in the year, the 42nd Athens Marathon – The Authentic, fostering team spirit and collegiality.
Concluding a year of sustained activity and achievement, a significant institutional milestone was reached when IIT’s Director Dr Vangelis Karkaletsis, following seven years of service, was appointed President of NCSR Demokritos, marking an important moment for both the Institute and the wider research centre.
IIT Demokritos Running team