The idea of establishing an Academy began to take shape in early 2015 reaching the implementation stage in April 2016 during a historic meeting in Athens between the then Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus, Dr Costas Kadis, and Professor Loucas G. Christophorou, a Memberof the Academy of Athens.
At this meeting, it was emphasized that Cyprus should take its rightful place in European and international affairs through its representation in international Academy organisations.
A memorandum had been submitted to the then Minister of Education and Culture, presenting a well-documented rationale regarding for the need to establish an Academy in Cyprus, along with its objectives, its mission, structure, operation, and contribution to Cyprus, the broader Eastern Mediterranean region, Europe, and internationally.
This memorandum was submitted then as a proposal to the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cyprus on April 6, 2016. By decision No. 80825, dated 13.6.2016, the Council of Ministers decided to approve in principle the establishment of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts and to appoint, for this purpose, a four-member Founding Committee, composed of Messrs Loucas Christophorou, Christoforos Pissarides, Kyriacos Nicolaou and Vassos Karageorghis, scientists of Cypriot origin and members of Academies in other countries.
The task of the Founding Committee, in line with the above decision of the Council of Ministers, was to define the Academy’s mission and activities, its structure and operating framework, the resources required for its operation at the various stages of its development, the benefits that Cyprus was expected to derive from its establishment, and the timeline for implementing this study.
Regarding the establishment, organisation and operation of the Academy, the Founding Committee focused on two main areas: (1) drafting the Academy’s Statutory Law and (2) drafting the Academy’s Operating Regulations. In November 2017, “The Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts Law of 2017” was passes unanimously by the Plenary of the House of Representatives. According to the Act, an Academy is established under the name of “Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts” as a legal entity under public law, based in Nicosia. The Act stipulates that the Academy is independent and fully autonomous with regard to its purposes and work, and constitutes Cyprus’s highest intellectual institution in the sciences, letters and arts. On April 5, 2019, the House of Representatives, once again unanimously, approved the “Regulations of 2019 Concerning the Operation of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts”.
