Alternate Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Kostas Fotakis said 20,000 young Greek scientists had left Greece between 2009 and 2014. During a speech at the opening of the 4th innovation quest expo “Patras IQ” said the number of young scientists choosing to go abroad had doubled compared to the period 2000-2005. Mr. Fotakis aid the government had implemented actions to support innovation and research, underlining that despite the economic crisis the government had significantly raised spending in research and development compared to 2014 and 2015. “Spending for research had gone up by 200 million euros from 2014 to 2015”, he said. The Minister stressed that the goal was to create an environment that inspired and were lucrative to do research in. He added that then state should back such actions, as the private sector was unwilling to take risks in an uncertain economic environment. Mr. Fotakis claimed the public sector spending program had increased from 97 million euros in 2014 to 148 million in 2016.