The RTD community, researchers and representatives from the business sector, R&D institutions, universities and NGOs, come together in the ‘EU 7th Framework Programme (FP7) Turkey Forum-4’. The high participation rates in the forum have led to a hopeful scenario for future collaboration opportunities and EU funded project participation. Representatives from TAGES, Selen Akçalı, Hikmet Barutçu and Gurbet Deniz Yavuz were in the forum to meet and discuss with the leading people in the sector.
‘EU 7th Framework Programme (FP7) Turkey Forum-4′ which aimed to increase cooperation between Turkey and the EU countries in innovation and R&D areas, gathered the researchers and representatives from business sectors, R&D institutions, universities and NGOs on October 22nd, 2007 in Ankara. The main goal of the event was to inform the participants about the FP7 funding and innovation while providing networking and collaboration opportunities. The Forum was an opportunity for the RTD community in Turkey as it hosted 27 foreign speakers from key European institutions from Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland, Iceland, and Ireland. Considering that more than 500 researchers and representatives of different sectors participated to the FP7 Turkey Forum-4, the forum illustrated that there is an increasing interest in Turkey in networking for R&D and EU funding. Many companies from different sectors come together for networking, sharing experience and collaboration.
The high participation rates in the forum have led to a hopeful scenario for future collaboration opportunities and EU funded project participation. Representatives from TAGES, Selen Akçalı, Hikmet Barutçu and Gurbet Deniz Yavuz were in the forum to meet and discuss with the European researhers and leading people in the sector.
The sessions held in different themes were thriving for the participants in the sense that the debates went deeper as a result of the separation of themes in different sessions. The sessions gave the participants insight on innovation and RTD as well as new FP7 partnership opportunities. As TAGES we have participated to different sessions and build one to one contact with key people in the sectors.
As TAGES we have participated to the energy session and talked to the speakers to introduce our EU-funded project FIRE-Facilitating Innovation in Renewable Energies and build first contacts with the European researchers such as Paola Bresesti from Cesi Ricerca, Dr. Ina Sebastian from Siemens AG, Ragnar Asmundsson from HITI Project Coordinator from ISOR, and Asko Ojaniemi, BENET Bioenergy Network. The speakers are successful in their areas and they have experience on EU Framework Programme Projects. The session was important in order to build one to one contacts, to introduce your project ideas to the European partners or Turkish companies in the sector or present competencies to participate to the project proposals. The FP7 energy call will be open on 13th November 2007. Therefore, TAGES talked on behalf of the renewable energy SMEs that will be supported under the FIRE project in order to make them partners in the EU funded projects.
TAGES also participated to the ICT session. TAGES has close relations with the ICT sector in Turkey and supports ICT companies under the EU funded EASIER project to make R&D and participate to the FP7 projects. TAGES keeps informing ICT SMEs on new project opportunities and through the Forum, TAGES has enlarged its network to be in contact with more people for more project idea development.
Former Prime Minister of Finland and President of the Finnish Innovation Fund Esko Aho’s speech on ‘Creating an Innovative Europe’ in the Forum is worth to mention. Aho especially marked that for the success with innovation you have to take risk and adopt the innovation culture within your institution. Aho remarked that for the success with innovation there is a need for a paradigm change andEurope requires a new paradigm of mobility, flexibility and adaptability to allow R&D and innovation to create the value that can support our quality of life. It was a pleasure for all participants to listen to Esko Aho’s experiences and remarks on innovation. Esko Aho is a leading person in innovation as he was also the chairman of the steering group in charge of drafting the National InnovationStrategy for Finland.
You can reach to detailed information and the presentation of the speakers from the following address:
It is good to have such events that gather different institutions together, from SME to the public body. As they come together they become more aware of the benefits of collaboration, acquire the networking culture, and find opportunities to develop project ideas.
