The Institute operates under the aegis of the Cyprus Research and Educational Foundation (CREF), which is governed by a Board of Trustees, comprised of leading personalities of the international academic, political and business world; it is currently chaired by Professor Edouard Brézin, former president of the French Academy of Sciences and Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. The principal objectives of CREF are the advancement of knowledge and its humane and benevolent application and the establishment of a new research and educational public-benefit organization which shall generally promote research and education in Cyprus and abroad and shall aim primarily at benefitting the public interest at large. The CyI is being developed by establishing research centers which address challenging problems that are important at both the regional and international levels. Its research centers are developed in partnership with leading institutions in the respective thematic areas. The Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) is developed in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Center (STARC) in partnership with the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France (C2RMF), headquartered in the Louvre and the Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC) in partnership with the University of Illinois. Multi-level founding partnerships with internationally prominent institutions ensure the development of the Centers in close collaboration with world leaders in their respective fields. Additional collaborations with other research and academic institutions together with local authorities further enhance the development.