Nikos Zaharis is the Director of the South East European Research Center (SEERC). He holds a BSc from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in Chemical Engineering, an MSc degree in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, USA. Mr. Zaharis has more than 25 years experience as a consultant and manager working for industrial as well as public sector organizations on issues ranging from management of innovation to environmental management, economic and regional development in Greece and in a series of eastern European countries. As SEERC’s Director, Mr. Zaharis focuses on research that facilitates the region’s sustainable development, the building of knowledge capacity and avoidance of brain-drain of the region while at the same time tackling major societal challenges the region is facing.

Publications

  • Karvounis, A., Zaharis, N. “Greece and EU structural funds: what do the choices made by Greece regarding the allocation of structural funds over the past 3 decades imply for the developmental model of the country?” in: P. Liargovas, S. Petropoulos, N. Tzifakis and A. Huliaras (Eds.) Beyond “Absorption”: The Impact of EU Structural Funds on Greece, KAS Greece, 2015 (pp. 335-48).
  • Zaharis, N. (2014). “Conclusions of Innovation Dialogue Fora” in: I. Marinković and E. Dall (Eds.), R&D and Innovation in Western Balkans Moving Towards 2020 (pp. 210–222).
  • Zaharis, N., Stanković, B., Tolias, Y. (2014). “The Results of the Pilot Self-Assessment Exercise for the Research and Innovation System of FYR of Macedonia” in: I. Marinković and E. Dall (Eds.), R&D and Innovation in Western Balkans Moving Towards 2020 (pp. 272–290).

Conferences

  • Zaharis, N., Tolias, Y., Sanopoulos, A., Metaxas, M. Lessons from a cluster support intervention supported by the Structural Funds in Greece. Days of Clusters, 2016. Ohrid, September 2016
  • Prokopiou, Th., Zaharis, N., Bibicas, D. Startify7. Lessons learnt from a Pan European Summer Academies Network for creating global talent. 33rd IASP World Conference, Moscow, September 2016
  • Fotopoulou, D., Siagas, S., Bibikas, D., Zaharis, N., Tomur, E., Staiou, E., Cerqueira, C., Matias, F., Porta, M.C., Lucca, S. Towards the design of a regional-sensitive domain focused high tech entrepreneurship programme. A Four Country Training Needs Analysis. International Conference on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development (ICEIRD), Thessaloniki, August 2017
  • Zaharis, N. Reflections on a study visit to Silicon Valley: What lessons can a South East European Region learn from the San Francisco Bay Area Innovation System?” International Conference on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development (ICEIRD), Istanbul 2013