ATHENA is a recognised research center in Greece for scientific excellence and innovation. ATHENA is comprised of three institutes (Language and Speech Processing; Industrial Systems; Information Management Systems) and five units (Corallia - Hellenic Technology Cluster Initiative; Space Programmes; Robot perception and Interaction; Environmental & Networking Technologies and Applications; Pharma - Informatics) that complete its vision. The vision of Athena RC is to serve the full spectrum of the research lifecycle, starting from basic and applied research, continuing to system & product building and infrastructure service provision, and ending with technology transfer and entrepreneurship. The fundamental role of Athena RC is to build knowledge and devise solutions and technologies for the digital society. Its value lies in the unique collection of skills and know-how of its researchers and professional staff and its national and international reputation.

In the last decade, ATHENA Research & Innovation Center coordinates the European electronic infrastructure for Open Access OpenAIRE, which is a pillar in EOSC, and from 2018 leads the activities of the Greek node. OpenAIRE supports European research and stakeholders in the three pillars of policies, infrastructures and training. Specifically, it utilizes its pool of services and mobilizes its network of Open Science experts (commonly known as NOADs) to enable and support:

• Open Science policies adoption by research performing and research funding organizations;
• interoperability of repositories based on global standards and scientific resources interlinking;
• compliance of all research and academic stakeholders with the European Commission's requirements for Open Access to scientific publications and data;
• National Open Science community building and scholarly communication;
• practising optimal data management and sharing in the philosophy of “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”.

In this context, it develops services and tools that strengthen and add value in the European Research and Innovation ecosystem, while at the national level, it offers specialized support through the network of national Open Access Nodes, which to date numbers, thirty-five member countries.