We are proud to highlight FORTH (The Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas), one of Europe’s leading research institutions and the coordinator of the HIGHER project. Founded in 1983, FORTH is the largest research center in Greece, renowned for its world-class infrastructure, high-caliber personnel, and a long-standing track record of excellence in scientific and technological innovation. Headquartered in Heraklion, Crete, FORTH oversees ten research institutes across a wide range of cutting-edge fields, from Microelectronics and Nanotechnology to Astrophysics, Computer Science, and Bioinformatics.
Role in the Project
As project coordinator, FORTH plays a central role in managing the overall direction and quality of the HIGHER project, with leadership responsibilities in Project Management and Firmware and System Software. FORTH is responsible for ensuring effective internal coordination and communication across all partners. This includes monitoring risks, managing financial and technical aspects of the project, and maintaining continuous alignment with European Commission expectations. By overseeing reporting cycles, deliverables, and milestones, FORTH ensures that the project progresses efficiently and meets its strategic goals.
In addition, FORTH leads the design and implementation of the firmware and system software stack that powers the HIGHER platform. This includes the development and validation of boot firmware (such as OpenSBI for RISC-V and U-Boot for Arm), as well as the integration of Linux operating systems and device drivers. A key responsibility is also the customization and deployment of a MetaOS software distribution tailored for representative cloud services.
These contributions are critical to achieving one of the project’s major technical milestones: the creation of a fully verified, OCP-compatible integrated platform. This platform will be capable of running complete cloud and edge workloads on both Arm and RISC-V architectures, marking a significant step forward in the realization of Europe’s processor independence and open computing goals.