June 17, 2025
The Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications at NCSR Demokritos took part in this year’s Data Week, which was held in Athens.
On Monday 26 May, the AI-on-Demand (AIoD) Platform, which serves as Europe’s hub for Artificial Intelligence, was presented during a dedicated workshop (AI-on-Demand Platform Co-located Workshop, May 26, 2025 – 14:00 – 16:00). Dr Antonis Troumpoukis, Researcher at IIT, introduced the platform and explained how it supports researchers, academia, industry and the public sector by providing access to AI resources and services.
On Tuesday 27 May, the Director of IIT, Dr Vangelis Karkaletsis, spoke at the Data Week 2025 plenary session, about the “Cross-fertilisation of AI Innovation Initiatives: EDIHs, AIFs, AIoDP”. In his talk, he outlined the importance of the AI-on-Demand Platform within the European AI landscape and underlined the value of collaboration across sectors to make the most of available data and promote practical innovation.
Later that day, Dr Karkaletsis joined Mr Savvas Rogotis (BDVA) in the panel discussion “AI factories and the data challenge: data labs and data spaces” (May 27, 2025 – 16:00 – 17:30). They discussed why it is necessary to connect the AI Platform with Data Spaces and AI Factories, highlighting how this link can support trustworthy and effective use of Artificial Intelligence in Europe.
Furthermore, IIT’s FRONT Research Group also took part in this year’s DataWeek2025, with collaborating researcher Vasilis Pitsilis representing the O-CEI project, for which NCSR Demokritos serves as scientific lead.
Pitsilis contributed to the panel “Democratising Digital Agriculture: Breakthroughs and Challenges,” organised by project partner GreenSupplyChain DIH, where he presented on “Continuum Technologies for Optimising Energy Consumption in Sustainable Dairy Production.” The session provided an excellent platform to share the project’s vision on harnessing edge-to-cloud computing, data interoperability and trusted AI to support smarter, more energy-aware agri-food systems.
Discussions highlighted the need to ensure that advanced digital tools become more accessible to the agricultural sector—particularly small and medium-sized producers—by enabling secure data sharing, intelligent automation and sustainable infrastructure across the Cloud-Edge-IoT (CEI) continuum.
The FRONT Research Group continues to actively contribute to Horizon Europe initiatives such as O-CEI, advancing federated, intelligent and sustainable digital ecosystems for the future.
Throughout Data Week, visitors had the chance to learn about AI services, find out how small and medium-sized enterprises can choose and adopt suitable AI solutions, and exchange ideas for possible partnerships with other projects and start-ups.
The Institute remains committed to supporting research, innovation and collaboration in Artificial Intelligence, both in Greece and across Europe.