The planning for the establishment of the Cyprus Institute took place from 2000 to 2004 under the aegis of the Cyprus Development Bank led by J. Ioannides and A. Mouskos. Aided by A. Stamatis, the CEO of the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center worked with a team of scholars, where they shaped the core vision and undertook the coordination, research and planning of the institute.

The team of academics consisted of:

• Ernest J. Moniz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has served as Secretary of the US Department of Energy and as associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy;
• Guy Ourisson of Louis Pasteur University, who served as president of the French Academy of Sciences and was the founding president of the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg;
• Costas N. Papanicolas of the University of Athens, chairman at the time of the Council of Educational Evaluation-Accreditation (CEEA);
• Frank H.T. Rhodes who has served as president of Cornell University;
• Herwig Schopper, who has served as general director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and as chair of the Scientific Council of the SESAME.^[14]

The planning phase was led by Costas N. Papanicolas, CEO of CREF. The vision of the institute and its staged development spanning a ten-year period was presented, debated and endorsed by a convocation of international scholars held in Nicosia in June 2002. The convocation was chaired by Hubert Curien, former minister of research of France, who accepted the founding chairmanship of the CREF Board.^[4] Following endorsement by the international community, a plan for launching the institute was drafted, which was accepted and supported by the Cyprus Development Bank and the Government of Cyprus.

The Cyprus Institute is being developed under the institutional umbrella of the Cyprus Research and Educational Foundation (CREF), governed by a board which is international in its composition.^[15]

The Board is chaired by Didier Roux, a French physicochemist, Director of research and innovation at Saint-Gobain and a member of the French Academy of sciences and the Academy of Technology, and includes world-renowned academics, all living presidents of the republic, regional and international political, civic and business leaders. The board is advised and aided by an international body of distinguished academics known as the Scientific Advisory Council.

The research organization of the institute comprises cross-disciplinary research centers pursuing issues of scholarly relevance, global significance and regional focus. There are currently five active research centers:^[11]

• Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC)
• Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC)
• Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC)
• Science and Technology Driven Policy and Innovation Research Center (STeDI-RC)
• Climate and Atmosphere Research Center (CARE-C)

Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) edit

The Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) is the first Research Center of the Cyprus Institute formally launched in December 2007. EEWRC is being developed under the guidance of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[16]

EEWRC has adapted its core research agenda around the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus.

Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Center (STARC) edit

The Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Center (STARC) is being developed jointly by The Cyprus Institute and the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France, headquartered at the Louvre. STARC was launched in February 2009.

The center is devoted to the development, introduction and use of advanced scientific technologies in the domains of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. The Mediterranean-Middle East region is one of the world's richest areas in terms of cultural heritage and archaeological remnants and thus offers a fertile ground for developing this line of research. Research topics derive from a use-inspired basic research approach.^[17]

Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC) edit

The Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC) is being developed jointly with the University of Illinois and in particular with its National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA),^[18] it was officially launched in February 2009. The center is actively involved in research projects relating to improve the computing infrastructure of the Eastern Mediterranean region. Projects include the coordination of the regional LinkSCEEM project, which aims to establish user communities and ameliorate network connectivity in the region, and the European PRACE initiative,^[19] which will create a persistent pan-European High Performance Computing service.

CaSToRC will advance large-scale simulations of complex systems and use them to pursue scientific and engineering problems in areas such as advanced materials, the dynamics of macromolecules, climate change, atmospheric and ocean dynamics, physics and cosmology, digital libraries, advanced visualization and interactive human systems. The center will provide an open user facility at the multi-teraflop scale and a portal to resources in Europe and the US at the petaflop scale, accessible to the Cypriot and regional scientific community. It plans to offer regional and international educational programs in computational science. Initial activities of the center are large-scale climate modeling, the analysis of the data generated by the SESAME synchrotron facility in Jordan, and the detailed storage and visualization of archaeological cultural information.^{[citation needed]}

Science and Technology Driven Policy and Innovation Research Center (STeDI-RC) edit

STeDI-RC (the Science and Technology Driven Policy and Innovation Research Center) is the fifth Research Center of the Cyprus Institute, which was launched in 2018, following a strategic decision taken by the Institute's board of trustees and started operations in the academic year 2022–23. Its scope was decided by a Committee comprising faculty members from all Research Centers of the Institute as well as some of the Institute's senior management

In line with the Institute's mission to conduct pioneering research, innovation, and educational activities to address problems of significance for Cyprus, Europe, and the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region, STeDI-RC is a cross-disciplinary endeavor to engage in policy research and innovation addressing today's sustainability challenges.

The center's research will leverage innovative science- and technology-driven ideas to solve sustainability challenges.  In addition to research, the Center aspires to become a leading think tank with a mission to enrich policymaking with innovative approaches.^[20]

Climate and Atmosphere Research Center (CARE-C) edit

CARE-C is a regional European Center of Excellence for Climate and Atmosphere Research, based in Cyprus, for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) region. CARE-C is focused on addressing urgent climate change and air pollution challenges and impacts in the EMME region.

CARE-C has set to address these challenges through a combination of research, innovation and education actions with a regional focus. CARE-C was founded at the Cyprus Institute in January 2020 through competitive funding secured from the European Commission and the Cyprus Government, in the framework of the European Commission Horizon-2020-TEAMING project “EMME-CARE” (Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre; Grant no. 856612).^[21][22]

The center was established in cooperation with EU Advanced Partners: the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz in Germany, the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in France, and the University of Helsinki (UHEL) in Finland.^{[citation needed]}

• Official website