The Board of Directors of the Sylvia Ioannou Foundation, wishing to honour the multi-faceted contribution of its founder, Sylvia Ioannou, has decided to fund one of the few Digital Humanities academic chairs that exist in Europe at present. The Sylvia Ioannou Chair for Digital Humanities at the Faculty of Letters, University of Cyprus aims to establish interdepartmental degree programmes (master’s and doctoral) and to conduct research projects in the field of Digital Humanities.

This discipline is on the rise internationally and involves the collaboration of the traditional Humanities with the continuously evolving areas of Digital Science and Technology.

The signing ceremony of the agreement was held in the Senate Conference Room of the University of Cyprus on Thursday 23 November 2017. Artemis Scutari, Director of the Sylvia Ioannou Foundation, expressed the hope that this new university chair will constitute an incubator for young researchers and that, 'under the auspices of the Faculty of Philosophy and with the collaboration of all faculties and departments of the University of Cyprus, it will contribute significant educational and research work to the interdisciplinary dialogue of our era’.

The Dean of the University, Professor Constantinos Christofides, stressed the contribution of Digital Sciences to keeping memory alive and preserving history. He also underlined the fact that the Sylvia Ioannou Chair for Digital Humanities will emphasise the study of ‘the digital ecosystem’, a place where ‘the Humanities and Sciences no longer travel in parallel; they converse, they evolve, thanks to their interaction, and they form a magnificent synthesis, which, if used wisely, can only be of benefit to people and their progress’.

The Sylvia Ioannou Chair began operation in September 2019.