On June 29, 2021, the UNESCO Directorate of Higher Education approved the award of the UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage and Cultural Heritage-related Activities to the Ionian University, with Professor Stavros Katsios of the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpretation (DFLTI) and director of the Laboratory of Geocultural Analysis (GeoLab) as chairholder.

The UNESCO-approved Chair is the first in the Ionian Islands, and of particular importance for Corfu as a city inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Chair concerns the study and analysis, the provision of consulting support, the research and the teaching (at undergraduate, postgraduate-doctoral level and lifelong learning) for any kind of threat (such as environmental, economic, criminal, geopolitical, technological, terrorist, etc.). ) for the Cultural Heritage and for any activity related to the Cultural Heritage (such as threats to infrastructure, transport, tourism, etc.).

Implementing body of the action of the Chair is the Laboratory of Geocultural Analysis (GeoLab) of DFLTI, of the School of Humanities of the Ionian University. The Chair is staffed by an international interdisciplinary team of professors and researchers.