Greece Signs Agreement With Amazon For Innovation Space Hub

Greece’s Ministry of Digital Governance,  Ministry of Development and Investment and Amazon Web Services (AWS) signed a Statement of Strategic Intent that will support the creation of a vibrant, sustainable, competitive, and innovative space hub in Greece as a key part of the country’s digital transformation goals.

As a longstanding member of the European Space Agency (ESA) and with the support of its Hellenic Space Center, Greece is developing innovative new capabilities in the areas of Earth observation, telecommunications, aerospace technologies, and education.

The agreement describes how the Greek Ministries and AWS will collaborate on specific economic and technology initiatives to provide capabilities to government and commercial space customers who are transforming Greece’s national telecommunications and space industry.

These initiatives include:

The Greece/AWS Space Collaboration for the Economy & Development (G/ASCEnD)

Through this initiative, the Greek Ministries and AWS will work together to promote the Hellenic space economy by focusing on programs that will support the growth, education, training and experience of professionals in the Greek aerospace community.

For example, AWS will support the growth of the Greek space startup and technology community by providing them with access to AWS Activate, which works with hundreds of accelerators, angel investors and venture capital firms across the world to provide startups with free AWS credits, technical support, training, resources, and more. In the area of educational outreach, AWS provides related research institutions in Greece with access to a no-cost, ready-to-teach cloud computing curriculum. As part of these education initiatives, AWS will provide professionals in the space industry access to CloudU, a flexible, community-based learning program for women, as well as to the AWS Educate program’s Cloud Career Pathways, geared toward young professionals. The initiative will also provide access to more than 500 free, on-demand courses, interactive labs and virtual training sessions through AWS Training and Certification.

The AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program
Through this program, Greek space data professionals and organizations may access, collaborate and store qualified space-related data and assets on the Registry of Open Data on AWS.

The Statement of Strategic Intent is the latest step in AWS’s investment in Greece. Earlier this year, AWS opened its first office in Athens and in 2020, AWS launched an Amazon CloudFront location in Athens, offering all organizations in the country faster content delivery and added cybersecurity protection. The same year, AWS signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Digital Governance to work closely with the administration to modernize government services within the country and to support a cloud-ready workforce through education on digital skills of future generations to foster cloud-enabled businesses in the country.

“We are looking forward to working closely with the Ministries on these initiatives, designed to support the country’s ongoing focus on innovation in aerospace and technology,” said Cameron Brooks, director of the Public Sector, Europe, at AWS. “This agreement builds on our existing commitment to support Greece’s growing digital economy.”

Read more about AWS presence in Greece here