The Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) travelled to Kastellorizo, the heart of puzzles and science games, on the occasion of the 3rd Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival, which took place from 20th to 22nd of October 2023. This border island became the centre of science for three days, through innovative educational programmes, impressive experiments, games, puzzles and workshops that attracted the interest of students and teachers on the island, as well as of those visiting Kastellorizo from Rhodes, Symi and Chalki.

In the context of HFRI’s first participation in the festival, two (2) research projects supported by the Foundation under the 3rd Call for Action “Science and Society” titled “ Research, Innovation and Dissemination Hubs” were presented through interesting activities.

In the weekend of 21st-22nd of October, the Environmental and Chemical Processes Laboratory (ECPL) of the Chemistry Department of the University of Crete presented the research project “Learning and Teaching about Climate Change” (EDU4Clima) in the framework of parallel activities. The Principal Investigator, Professor Maria Kanakidou, and the Project Coordinator, Dr. Nikos Kalyvitis, helped the younger and older visitors of Kastellorizo to understand the causes and effects of climate change through educative videos and a series of simple experiments demonstrating various phenomena.

A bit earlier, Mr. Panagiotis Evangelopoulos, Public Outreach Officer of the Institute of Astrophysics at the Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH), and Mr. Giorgos Klimis, Physics Professor at the Pagkrition Private School, welcomed students and teachers outside the Santrapia Urban School, in the context of the research project “Discovery Space” (D-Space), to observe the formations in the sun surface and calculate the height of the sun in the sky with a solar telescope and a helioscope.

On Saturday evening, everyone met at the Kastellorizo airport area for a special observation of the sky during night time with a telescope. The attendees had the chance to observe the moon and some planets, such as Saturn with its rings and Jupiter. In parallel, the research team of D-Space provided interesting information about our solar system, offering thus both a pleasant and educative experience.

With its participation in the Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival, HFRI continues to support, through concrete actions, initiatives that promote outward-looking scientific approaches and especially those emphasising the important role of research and innovation for societies, such as the ones in border islands, in an original way. The HFRI Director, Dr Katerina Kouravelou, visited the Festival to attend the activities in person. Dr Kouravelou had the pleasure to meet Mr. Pantazis Choulis and Mrs. Eleni Grammatikopoulou, whom she congratulated for this important initiative. In addition, she thanked them for their hospitality, the guided tour in Kastellorizo and the excellent organisation of the Festival.

Snapshots from the participation of HFRI at the Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival can be found here

Press Release