The Stavros Niarchos Foundation announces new grants, totaling more than €33 million
These 68 new grants concern actions in the areas of Arts & Culture, Education, Health & Sports and Social Welfare.
In the three-month period between the SNF’s BoD last meeting, in the summer, to date, the new grants internationally reach €236 million, including the Initiative to support the Health sector in Greece, with an initial budget expected to exceed €200 million. A detailed list of grants is attached at the end of the text.
Since 1996, the SNF has allocated more than €2.1 billion, through almost 4,000 grants to nonprofit organizations around the world. Overall, the Foundation has allocated 37% of its grants in the field of Arts & Culture, 24% in Education, 26% in Health & Sports, and 13% in Social Welfare.
So far, the SNF has committed grants in over 110 nations. 67% of all grants have been implemented in Greece, including the SNF’s largest single grant, concerning the creation of the SNFCC, while 33% have been implemented abroad.
The event took place in the space that most reflects the philosophy of the SNF, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. In addition to the overall grant for the construction and outfitting of the SNFCC, totaling almost €630 million, the SNF continues supporting the SNFCC for five years, through grants totaling €50 million, for the implementation of public programming and operational support. Also, with the aim of strengthening the new generation and creating new opportunities for training and acquiring skills, the SNF has announced a new grant totaling more than €11 million for the support of paid internship positions. The grant will provide the opportunity to almost 950 young people to work in different areas at the SNFCC, during the period 2017-2022. The grant is part of the SNF’s Recharging the Youth Initiative.
The occasion also marked the launch of the monthly series of events under the title DIALOGUES, through which the SNF aims to showcase individuals who inspire with their work and vision. Through these events, which will be open to the public and will take place the third Thursday of every month, the SNF hopes to spark conversations, to create a platform for the exchange of ideas, to inspire a new way of thinking and, ideally, to build new bridges of cooperation between people and organizations.
The series will be live streamed and will also be available on demand in both a video and podcast format on the SNF’s website, www.SNF.org.
The DIALOGUES are curated and moderated by Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou.
During the first event of the series, the SNF presented some of its recent grants, by program area, with videos and an onstage discussion with representatives of the grantee organizations, as well as direct beneficiaries. Indicatively, these included grants to the Greek Basketball Coaches Association, the Greek National Opera’s Alternative Stage, the Society for the Protection of Prespa, the 401 Military Hospital of Athens, as well as grants supporting scholarship and lifelong learning programs.
The discussion centered around synergies in local communities, the transfer of best practices, the importance of lifelong learning, the significance of accessibility to healthcare services and the arts, while, at the start of the event, members of the SNF’s Programs Department shared stories from their day-to-day contact with organizations that are active all over Greece and internationally.
In the second part of the event, the Co-President of the SNF, Mr. Andreas Dracopoulos, welcomed on stage the Greek Minister of Health, Mr. Andreas Xanthos, and the Greek Alternate Health Minister, Mr. Pavlos Polakis, for a discussion on the recent announcement by the SNF, to commit grants totaling more than €200 million to further enhance the Health sector in Greece, with a series of infrastructure and education projects.
In September 2017, following discussions between the Ministry of Health and the SNF, the Foundation announced its intention to fully support a series of infrastructure and education projects, which include, among others, the construction and outfitting of a new building for the General Hospital of Komotini, the construction and outfitting of a Children’s Hospital in Thessaloniki, the reconstruction and complete outfitting of the Nursing Sisters’ building at Evangelismos Hospital, with the purpose of operating as the Chair of the University’s Faculty of Nursing, as well as strengthening the capability and efficiency of the National Center for Emergency Care’s (EKAV) air ambulance services.
Under the same grant initiative, the SNF intends to support the procurement of 3 PET/CT scanners, to be made available to public hospitals across the country, as well as the purchasing of radiopharmaceutical production units (baby cyclotrons). In addition, the SNF is considering support for educational programs for young doctors, in relation to the treatment of trauma, as well as recording, monitoring and intervention programs concerning hospital infections.
This new initiative comes as an addition to a previous SNF grant to EKAV, currently in its final implementation phase, which covers, among others, the procurement of 143 state-of-the-art ambulances as well as their full service and maintenance for a period of 8 years and the digital upgrade of its operations center, totaling €14 million. Those present in the SNFCC on the day of the event had the opportunity to see up close the first ambulances provided by the SNF’s grant. The new ambulances will shortly be distributed throughout the country.
The initiative comes as an addition to a series of previous grants in the Health sector, implemented over time. It is worth mentioning the initiative for the establishment of the Mobile Medical Units (MMU), in collaboration with the NGO “Regeneration and Progress” providing healthcare programs to residents of islands and remote areas in Greece, with the objective of meeting the basic need for access to reliable and comprehensive healthcare services for all Greek residents. The MMU have already completed 29 missions. Other noteworthy grants in the Health sector, include the grant, totaling €16 million, supporting the replacement of seven obsolete linear accelerators in public hospitals around the country, the grant for the renovation of all Pediatric Intensive Care Units (ICUs), as well as the grant for the construction and complete outfitting of hostels to house the relatives of patients in hospitals around the country.
In the context of the discussion, the Co-President of the SNF announced that the internationally renowned architect, Renzo Piano, the creator of the SNFCC, will undertake the design of the infrastructure projects to be carried out within the framework of the Initiative to strengthen Greece’s Health sector, bringing with him a new philosophy for harmonizing treatment areas with the natural environment.
The Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Mr. Andreas Dracopoulos, stated: “The development of the SNFCC has demonstrated the multiple benefits that a transparent collaboration between the public and the private sector can bring about for society. Thus, with the new Initiative to enhance the Health sector in Greece, we look forward to an open process whose sole purpose is to promote the common good. We are particularly happy and proud that during these very intense times, the SNF continues to find new, distinguished partners and meet with older, familiar ones, on a common path in an effort to make our world a better place to live. The world is our neighborhood.”
Mr. Dracopoulos also referred to the possible involvement of the internationally renowned architect, Renzo Piano, architect of the SNFCC, in the design of the infrastructure projects that will be implemented as part of the grant initiative to enhance the Health sector in Greece, noting that the possible involvement of the architect will contribute to the introduction of a new philosophy that harmonizes therapy spaces with the natural environment.
The Health Minister, Mr. Andreas Xanthos, stated: “The grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation is an emblematic intervention in the crucial field of Health and the operation of our country’s health system. This approach entails an investment in the support and upgrading of the public health system, as well as an investment in social cohesion and the country’s dignity.”
The Alternate Health Minister, Mr. Pavlos Polakis, stated: “The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is implementing this grant as part of an overall strategy focused on strengthening the public health system, so that it may respond to the needs of the people, and provide high-quality healthcare, based on what science can offer today, free of charge, in a timely and effective manner, for anyone who needs it, wherever they need it.”
