The closing meeting of the project “Strengthening Infrastructure for Developing New Products and Establishing a Mentor Bridge” implemented by Hasan Kalyoncu University (HKU) under the Turkey’s Financial Support Program for Refugees (FRIT) – ENHANCER Project, funded by the European Union (EU) and coordinated by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the Ministry of Industry and Technology of the Republic of Turkey, and the Silk Road Development Agency (IKa), took place.
The program, which started with opening speeches by HKU Rector Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli, IKA Secretary-General Dr. Burhan Akyılmaz, and ICMPD/Enhancer Project Migration and Development Portfolio Manager Pınar Yapanoğlu, featured presentations of the projects supported and implemented within the scope of the project.
Making the opening speech of the program, HKU Rector Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli said: “Hasan Kalyoncu University has high potential in terms of human resources, laboratories, technology transfer office, technopark, and all other elements, in high R&D and university-industry cooperation. Within the scope of activities carried out in the field of industry cooperation by our university; more than 40 companies have been established by students and academicians in the incubation center, and starting capital has been provided to 15 of them from different institutions. A total of 156 patent applications were made by students and academicians, 16 of which were registered, and 5 were commercialized. In the OSB Technopark, a total of 47 official R&D and software projects have been carried out by entrepreneurs. A total of 39 R&D project contracts were signed between our university and industrial organizations in the last 3 years. Our academicians took part in projects with a total budget of 9 million 460 thousand TL. Prototyping support is provided to SMEs, academicians, and students at Kalyon Garage Prototyping and Entrepreneurship Center. With the ENHANCER project implemented, the infrastructure of Kalyon Garage has been strengthened with new machinery and software. With the pilot call opened in the project, applications were received from SMEs and entrepreneurs, and support for preparing business plans for new product ideas was also provided by mentors trained in our project. Thus, business plans for new products of entrepreneurs were prepared, and the path to their commercialization was opened using the right methods. With the infrastructure we strengthened within the scope of the project, the continuation of the pilot application we successfully implemented is planned, and our collaboration with the real sector will increase” and thanked ICMPD and IKA, especially all stakeholders who contributed to the implementation of the ENHANCER project.
Providing information about ICMPD, ICMPD/ENHANCER Grant Manager Pınar Yapanoğlu said: “Within the scope of the Enhancer project, activities are carried out to improve the capacity of the entrepreneurship ecosystem and actors in the provinces covered by the project. Especially, it is important for us that there are grant activities in the content of the project for the establishment of common-use facilities. The budget of the project is 32.5 million Euros. 17 million Euros of it are allocated to grant projects. The project aims to empower users, especially chambers of commerce, universities, technoparks, SMEs, cooperatives, and individual entrepreneurs with the grant. So far, we have provided grant support to about 109 grant beneficiaries in our project. Today, we have transferred a budget of 250,000 Euros from our ENHANCER project budget to our project” and expressed her thanks to everyone who contributed to the project.
IKA Secretary-General Dr. Burhan Akyılmaz said: “Many more projects like this should be carried out in order to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem of the region. As IKA, we have carried out many activities to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem of our region. As you take steps towards commercializing the ideas developed by valuable entrepreneurs in this ecosystem, we see more result-oriented works as collaborations between mentors and incubation centers that will support this process come together. Success comes with the combination of theory and practice” he said.
After the opening speeches, Ahmet Yasin Acar, Ecosystem Explorer at Deniz Ventures, gave a seminar on “Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Turkey and Investor Perspective”. In the program, representatives of SMEs benefiting from the project made investor presentations.
HKU Rector Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli presented gifts to Pınar Yapanoğlu, ICMPD/Enhancer Project Migration and Development Portfolio Manager, Dr. Burhan Akyılmaz, IKA Secretary-General, and Cengiz Helvacıkara, Coordinator of HKU Innovation and Technology Transfer Office, presented a gift to Ahmet Yasin Acar, Ecosystem Explorer at Deniz Ventures, for their memory of the day. The program ended with a group photo
News: Çetin KARABIYIK /HKU
