The opening program of the “Entrepreneurship Festival for Youth Workers” project, funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented under the Erasmus+ program with the support of the Turkish National Agency, took place at Hasan Kalyoncu University (HKU) Cine Amphitheatre. After touring the HKU campus, 40 participants from 12 different countries examined the university’s entrepreneurship activities conducted by the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) on-site.

Speaking at the opening of the program, where HKU’s entrepreneurship activities and statistics were presented, Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli, the Rector, stated, “In the HKU pre-incubation center, the seeds of 53 companies were planted, and 15 of them received seed investment from donors. Currently, 14 companies are in operation. A Prototyping and Entrepreneurship Center was established on campus to support the University-Industry collaboration ecosystem. Our Technopark in the Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone has become operational. With TTO support, a total of 158 patent applications were submitted by our students and academicians. We operate in the Starcamp International Incubation and Acceleration Center opened in Silicon Valley, USA, to carry successful initiatives to the international market. Within the scope of the project we are opening today, you will have the opportunity to get to know our university and entrepreneurship interfaces more closely, provide support for the encouragement of ideas, and direct them to suitable acceleration mechanisms. Moreover, we can develop versatile collaborations between our institutions. I would like to thank you for your participation, the European Union, and the Turkish National Agency for their support to our project, and I wish you success.”

Following this, project experts provided information to the participants about the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Gaziantep and Turkey.

News: Okan ULUFER /HKU