FORTH's research and technological focus is on areas of scientific, social, and economic interest, such as astrophysics, computer science, molecular biology, lasers, telecommunications, microelectronics, robotics, biotechnology, materials, medical engineering, applied and computational mathematics, biomedical research, Mediterranean Studies,[1] and historical studies.

The idea for FORTH was developed by five Greek scientists who had been working abroad: Eleftherios Economou, Fotis Kafatos, Dionysios Tsichritzis, Grigoris Sifakis,[2] and Panagiotis Lambropoulos.

In 1986 Skinakas Observatory, jointly supported by RCC, the University of Crete and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (Germany) also commenced its operations.

Most of the buildings were designed and supervised by Panos Koulermos, then a professor of architecture at the University of Southern California.

[9] Over the years, FORTH has been established as the premier research organisation in Greece,[10] ranking consistently first in scientific quality and international recognition by a variety of metrics,[11][12] including evaluations by external Committees as well as attracting funding by European Research Council grants.