TASSA contributes at TUBITAK’s International Science & Research Days
The first two days of the conference focused mainly on informing the Turkish researchers by the representatives of the European agencies about the European Union (EU) programs for scientific collaboration and about existing funding opportunities with a key objective to increase the number of proposals coming from Turkey and to enhance Turkish partnerships in EU Framework programme. Some examples of Turkish best practices were also showcased by their respective principal investigators. It is important to note that scientists and scholars residing in the U.S. can actively participate in these programs via various mechanisms. Please visit the Web sites at http://fp6.cordis.lu , http://www.esf.org , or http://www.cost.esf.org for more detailed information.
The third day concentrated on disseminating information to Turkish scientists on collaborative research possibilities beyond Europe, in both the East and the West. Besides the speakers from Belarus, Japan, and South Korea, there were participants from some major institutions in the U.S. TASSA President Suleyman Gokoglu gave a presentation (view it in pdf format or follow the instructions below to see the video presentation) on the “Impact of Scientists Living Abroad on the Progress of S & T Research in Turkey.” On the same third day, full-day parallel sessions were also organized at TUBITAK’s Marmara Research Center (MAM) at Gebze on opportunities for S & T collaboration with EU Joint Research Centers.
The fourth and fifth days of the conference focused on TUBITAK’s representation in international organizations and funding international events and projects. Parallel brainstorming sessions were held in order to develop criteria for 1) improving and evaluating the performance of TUBITAK’s representatives, 2) becoming members in international organizations, 3) funding or attending international conferences, and 4) funding international projects. TASSA contributed at these sessions by offering its experience and expertise from the U.S. on similar subjects.
The consensus opinion at the conclusion of the conference was that the effectiveness of information dissemination and exchange was very high. TUBITAK expressed its intensions to turn this conference into an annual event. TASSA has made several arrangements with TUBITAK officials for the timely and broader distribution of information to its membership on the U.S. about collaborative research and funding opportunities in Europe in general, and in Turkey in specific.
TASSA Executive Committee
*: This video (500 MB) is compressed with DivX 5.1 codec and you will need to install the necessary codec on your computer to view it. You can download DivX codecs here.