The most advanced nanotechnology research and application center cooperates with the industry
Dignitaries from the government, industry and academia gathered at the Sabancı Univer-sity Nanotechnology Research and Application Center – SUNUM for the “Operational Model, Industry Participation, Early Results” meeting. The meeting was hosted by Sabancı University President Nihat Berker, and attended by Minister of Science, In-dustry and Technology Nihat Ergün and Minister of Development Cevdet Yılmaz.
Sabancı University President Nihat Berker said that the objective of SUNUM was to pro-vide the innovative creativity and development expected of universities and required for competition in the industry. Berker thanked Minister of Science, Industry and Technolo-gy Nihat Ergün and Minister of Development Cevdet Yılmaz for their contribution to re-search in nanotechnology which, according to Berker, played a very important part in Turkey’s progress.
President Nihat Berker continued: “It is our pleasure that, pursuant to the resolutions adopted in the December 2010 and 2011 meetings of the High Council of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology and the Ministry of De-velopment are taking the necessary steps to ensure that the research centers in Turkey op-erate 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. These efforts are important in many ways, not the least of which is the efficiency of these centers.
“I would like to stress another issue of paramount importance: people are the most im-portant element in ensuring sustainability. With your support, we have arrived at a point where renewal and maintenance investments in infrastructure and technical resources are as important as investing in human resources. We hope that the investment support and incentives of the government continue and increase to ensure the sustainability of human resources in the future.”
President Nihat Berker also said that the most important difference of SUNUM, for which the groundbreaking ceremony was held in June 2010 with President of the Repub-lic Abdullah Gül and opening ceremony in July 2011 with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, from existing research centers was its principle to develop solution alternatives to the issues of the society and contribute to increasing national welfare.
Nihat Berker said that a founding principle of Sabancı University was to create and de-velop together in order to become a global university, and that today’s meeting would ensure that Sabancı University faculty create the best service models with the input from stakeholders in the industry.
Also speaking at the meeting, Minister of Development Cevdet Yılmaz said that the vi-sion for 2023 called for an increase of the share of high-technology products in national exports, to which purpose R&D was being prioritized. Said Yılmaz, “The ratio of public and private R&D spending to national product was 0.53-0.54 in 2002; as of 2010, this ratio had become 0.84. This is a great leap. Considering that the national product rose from 230 billion dollars to 736 billion dollars, this is a threefold increase. Meanwhile, the ratio rises from 0.53 to 0.84. In dollar terms, this is an increase from 1.2 billion dollars to 6.2 billion dollars of R&D spending. This is exhilarating. In the past, Turkey’s spending was more than only 3 or 4 OECD and European countries; today, our spending exceeds that of 9-10 EU countries, in terms of ratio to national product. As important is the private R&D spending. We have an R&D target for 2023: we want to increase R&D spending to 3% of the national product. We want the private sector to account for two-thirds of this, and the public sector for one-third”
Yılmaz said that the most important aspect of converting R&D spending to added value and innovation was increasing R&D spending in the private sector, explaining that private R&D spending was in excess of 40% with an expectation to exceed 60%. Yılmaz also said that while the R&D business had 74,000 employees as of 2010, the target for 2023 was 300,000.
Cevdet Yılmaz concluded by saying that universities could play an important role in off-setting the regional imbalance of development levels in Turkey by contributing more to the development process.
Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Nihat Ergün said that an amendment of the Patents Law would enable universities to apply for institutional patents, while Technolo-gy Transfer Offices to be established within universities would be authorized to license patents, which will add patent revenue to university resources.
Ergün emphasized that the Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM) was a very important role model in advancing cooperation between the university and the industry, and that it was an inspiration to all decision-makers.
Ergün said that universities were responsible for leading advancement in knowledge-intensive industries, and that the Sabancı University Nanotechnology Center was a prime example of collaborating with the industry to convert knowledge into an end-product, making the institution very important. Ergün explained that the government would al-ways be in support of universities, academics and the industry collaborating in this area, and said, “We know very well that any high-quality project that will increase production, export and employment will be a stone in Turkey’s path to 2023 targets.”
After the opening speeches, SUNUM Director Volkan Özgüz discussed the current pro-jects and future objectives of the center. Özgüz explained that they were on the path to building an “Innovation Ecosystem” where academic researchers, students, industry researchers and manufacturers would work in close contact within a defined area, and said, “SUNUM blossomed on the foundation laid by the scientifically and technically competent faculty of the Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Social Sciences. On top of this foundation, we erected this excellent research building and equipment park with the contributions of the Ministry of Development and the Sabancı Foundation. We built state-of-the-art laboratories.
“By making this wealthy base of people and technical facilities available to all academic and industrial users, SUNUM aims to increase the competitive edge and create knowledge-based value. All users that meet specific requirements may use our center.” Volkan Özgüz added that there were cooperation agreements with many leading centers, both in Turkey and abroad.
Volkan Özgüz continued, “We consulted with stakeholders in the industry to identify the people-focused areas with high value for SUNUM. These areas include the energy, envi-ronment, water and defense initiatives of the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Scienc-es, which will be accelerated with the help of the new infrastructure at our center. Our short-term application area is structural elements, where we will focus on composite pan-els and medical equipment utilizing nanotechnology. The medium-term area of applica-tion is food and agriculture, and the long-term area is health and nano-biotechnology. Our R&D efforts continue on every level from building blocks to industrial implementa-tion. We work within strategic partnerships and pre-competition consortia to obtain re-sults within a schedule that meets the needs of the industry. Early results are here. In addition to a dozen scientific publications, we have made two patent applications.”
Speeches were followed by a panel discussion on “Nanotechnology R&D Efforts of Stakeholders” moderated by Vice-President of Sabancı University and Director of Re-search Graduate Policy Hasan Mandal. Speaking at the panel were representatives of the Gebze High Technology Institute, Akkök Group and Eczacıbaşı Yapı Ürünleri, which are the first research partners in SUNUM.
Later, Sabancı University President Nihat Berker and SUNUM Director Volkan Özgüz gave a tour of SUNUM laboratories to Minister of Development Cevdet Yılmaz, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Nihat Ergün and the other guests.