The Hellenic Mediterranean University was established, on 7th of May 2019, in accordance with the law 4610/07-05-2019, article 23. The Technological Educational Institute of Crete evolved into the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU) which is one of the 24 Higher Educational Institutions of Greece and provides high quality educational programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the fields of:
Engineering such as Electrical and Computer Engineering, Informatics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Energy Systems
Electronic Engineering, Music Technology and Acoustics, Geo-environmental Resources and Risks
Agriculture, Food & Nutrition
Health and Welfare Services
Management and Economics/Business School (Business Administration and Tourism, Accounting & Finance, Management Science and Technology)
The Hellenic Mediterranean University is highly research-oriented in every scientific field covered by its departments and its research laboratories; therefore, it holds a top position in university research rankings and it is recognized for its contribution in the development of the island of Crete and Greece. The academic and research staff of the Hellenic Mediterranean University is involved in many scientific activities in collaboration with national and international research groups and teams which have led, on the one hand, to important research results and, on the other hand, to the development of technological innovations in a wide range of research areas and innovative products with international recognition.
Basic and Applied Research at the Hellenic Mediterranean University is focused on state-of-the-art research fields in sciences (physics, mathematics, etc.), engineering, health sciences, environmental and materials sciences, management and economics, social sciences etc. Research activities are organized in Institutional Research Laboratories (established according to the Government Gazette). Each of these laboratories is focused on thematic areas, with an interdisciplinary approach whenever is required. All Laboratories have specialized research, scientific and technical staff and are equipped with high-tech equipment. They are involved in high level research activities, which have the ability to develop original products and to provide high quality services.
ELKE (Special Account for Research Funds) of HMU is the University’s authorized central administrative foundation, which is responsible for the financial and administrative management of the research and development projects implemented by the Institution. ELKE is a well-organized unit with 4 Departments, which ensures the qualitative monitoring and management of the R&D projects. In the context of effective and successful management, ELKE has established clear financial reporting mechanisms and an appropriate accounting and monitoring system is in place to manage all of its funds. This system ensures that all accounting and supporting documents of expenditure towards each project is recorded appropriately.
ELKE as the basic unit of HMU that manages all the R&D funds has shown increasing activity and development in administrating research funded programmes in the above scientific fields. Τhe number of research and development projects implemented by ELKE, the statistics from official databases and the numerous excellent national and international partnerships that ELKE is involved in, is indicative of its activity. The budget of the projects managed by ELKE over the last 5 years (2013-2018) exceeds 80m euros. As a result, HMU is at the highest position among the former TEIs of the country in terms of attracting competitive funding, and is now ranked highly among all Greek Universities, surpassing a number of the more established ones.
Among the funded programmes implemented by ELKE, there are several HORIZON and Erasmus programmes, FP7 projects, INTERREG programmes, and other European projects and National funded projects (research and technology funded programmes, research and innovation programmes, “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” programmes, etc.). It is important to note that HMU has been very successful in implementing all the aforementioned projects. In the context of the Evaluation of the “Research and Innovation” programme, and the National programme for the “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation”, it participated in a total of seventeen approved projects along with productive enterprises operating in Crete and it was ranked in the first position, above all the other Technological Institutions of the country, and above many established Universities.
The Hellenic Mediterranean University actively aims at the practical use of Research & Development results by providing services and rights of use in national or international industries for specific products, or by signing contracts for the joint development of new products. The funds of the Hellenic Mediterranean University from Research and Development Projects and programmes in the period 2013-2016 amounted to 27 million Euros. According to recent studies on Hellenic scientific publications of Universities, HMU is one of the country’s top academic institutions. HMU, under its previous legal status as TEI of Crete, was ranked first among the Technological Educational Institutes of the country, producing a high number of scientific publications and surpassing major established Universities in terms of international recognition of its scientific work.
In particular: For the period 2000-2014, based on a study by the National Documentation Center (EKT) of Greece, TEI of Crete ranked first among the TEIs in Greece with regard to the most publicized research publications and had an impact index factor that exceeded the global average. In addition, TEI of Crete had surpassed several Institutions of the University Sector (EKT study – report06.metrics.ekt.gr).
Recently (10/2018) the National Documentation Center (EKT) published the study “Greek Scientific Publications 2002-2016”: “Bibliometric analysis of Greek publications in international scientific journals – Web of Science” referring to evaluation and rankings of Greek scientific publications of Universities and TEIs in international periodicals in the period 2002-2016. According to this publication (available at metrics.ekt.gr), HMU, having been evaluated as TEI of Crete, is still one of the country’s top research institutes.
In particular, it had been ranked at the top of the list among the country’s former TEIs, surpassing six Universities with respect to number of scientific publications and seven Universities in relation to the international recognition of its scientific work. This recognition, measured by the impact index, classifies HMU above the global average. The Hellenic Mediterranean University also surpasses the world average in two areas of excellence, the scientific fields “Natural Sciences” and “Engineering and Technology” and has a higher position than some of the established Universities in the country.
In conclusion, as shown by the latest study of the EKT, the scientific publications of HMU are distinguished by their quality, excellence and originality and are recognized by other scientists at National, European and International level to a considerable extent.
All the above confirm and prove:
the excellent position of the Hellenic Mediterranean University in the field of research and development among Greek Higher Education Institutions and the high level of research activity presented by the professors and researchers of HMU with their scientific work distinguished in the national and international academic environment.