Turkey

Political framework for scientific and technological cooperation

Turkey is one of the world's most strongly expanding economies. Germany's exports to Turkey are increasing more quickly than those to China.

A special agreement concluded in 1997 between the Research Centre Jülich GmbH and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK) forms the legal basis for bilateral scientific and technological cooperation. The collaboration between the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Turkey is becoming increasingly important: the Turkish government is making remarkable efforts to improve the position of universities and research institutions in the R&D sector. Turkey provided 250 million euros to the 6th Research Framework Programme, the largest contribution among the accession candidates. Turkey will also be an associated member of the 7th European Research Framework Programme. National expenditure on research is to be increased to 2% of the GDP by 2010.

Approximately 50% of the Turkish population is below the age of 25. At the moment, young Turkish scientists are mainly orientating themselves towards Anglo-Saxon universities. This means that there is great cooperation potential for Germany which the scientific community is not yet sufficiently aware of.

Key areas of cooperation

In the past, the focus of the research cooperation was in the area of environmental research, especially water technologies. There have also been activities in other areas, including:

• Materials research,
• Biotechnology
• Health research, and
• Geosciences.

In the context of potential joint EU projects, the aim is to continue expanding cooperation in the areas of life sciences, materials research and ecological research, among others.

Highlights of bilateral cooperation

Relations with Turkey in the areas of teaching and research have traditionally been good. One aim of our future collaboration with Turkey is to systematically create new university partnerships and intensify existing ones. After the materials research workshop in October 2003 at the Marmara Research Centre ("Nanotechnology and Multifunctional Materials"), German-Turkish environment workshops were conducted at the Research Centre Jülich under the headings "Sustainable Development and Ecosystems" (May 2004) and "Sustainable Development. Meeting the Challenges" (September 2005). The contents of these events were based on the thematic areas of the 6th Research Framework Programme and led to new S&T cooperation projects and EU proposals.

In January 2006, the key actors involved in Germany's scientific and technological cooperation with Turkey followed the BMBF's invitation to a Turkey Strategy Day with the aim of evaluating the opportunities and risks offered by Turkey as a cooperation partner and identifying possible areas of activity for the next two years.
As part of the German-Turkish Cooperation Council's (DTKR) yearly meetings, the working group Science, Research and Technology, which includes representatives of the BMBF, TÜBITAK and other key actors, has been holding meetings since April 2006 to discuss current issues of the bilateral research and technology cooperation.

Activities:

German - Turkish TU9-Workshop on Sustainable Energy (12-14 November 2008, TUBITAK Marmara Research Center, Gebze, Kocaeli Turkey)

"HEALTH BRIDGES ACROSS THE BOSPHORUS" 
a European multi-society German-Turkish summer workshop (29 June - 2 July 2008, Schloß Raesfeld, Germany)

German- Turkish Workshop on Powertrain  (17- 19 March 2008, Wolfsburg, Germany) 

German-Turkish University Conference and projekt Marketplace: GeT Univation (Februar 2007, Braunschweig, Germany)

German-Turkish Science, Technology and Research Cooperation Workshop, (13 - 15 December 2006, Gebze, Turkey )

Sustainable Development: Meeting the Challenges (September 2005, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)


Some examples of german-turkish project can be found here