The United States and Turkey Chart Path Forward to Advance Bilateral Cooperation on Science, Technology, and Innovation
On April 3-4, the United States and Turkey will hold their first high-level meeting in Ankara, Turkey to develop a roadmap to enhance bilateral science, technology, and innovation cooperation under the 2010 U.S.-Turkey Science and Technology Agreement.
Over 100 American and Turkish representatives from government, the private sector, universities, and non-governmental organizations will meet to develop mechanisms to increase cooperation in the areas of energy, biomedical research, agriculture, natural hazards, educational technologies, material sciences, and engineering for a sustainable future. In addition, participants will explore ways to strengthen both countries’ innovation ecosystems to support technology commercialization, as well as put into place effective policies and regulations that support economic development. They also will discuss methods to utilize science to make more informed policy decisions, build networks of universities and researchers.
Dr. Kerri-Ann Jones, Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and Professor Dr. Yücel Altunbaşak, President of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), will lead their countries’ delegations. Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation Nihat Ergün and U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone will also both participate in the meeting, which is being hosted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and TÜBİTAK.
TASSA is invited to participate in these meetings and continues to play a key role to sustain cooperation. TASSA Vice Presidents Prof. Candan Tamerler and Dr. Nilay Papila will represent TASSA and actively participate in various committee deliberations.
There will be more to come in our next Bridge issue on the working group activities including the potential areas for future collaborations, proposed mechanisms to sustain future collaborations.