President of TÜBİTAK Prof. Dr. Hasan MANDAL visited Teknopark Ankara, which is located in Ivedik Organized Industry Zone

President of TÜBİTAK Dr. Hasan Mandal visited Technopark Ankara, which is located in Ivedik Organized Industry Zone. In the visit, hosted by Hasan Gultekin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Technopark Ankara and, Oguz Unal, General Manager of Technopark Ankara, the regional industrialists and entrepreneurs came together. Hasan Gultekin conveyed requests for further cooperation with TÜBİTAK on behalf of the regional industrialists, while emphasizing that the Technopark Ankara, which will revive the R&D culture, has the infrastructure to overcome this transformation. Also, President of TÜBİTAK Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal, who expressed his satisfaction to come together with industrialists and entrepreneurs, framed the new term support and vision of the institution, which is celebrated its 55th year, and also stated that communication and business cooperation with industrialists will be increased.

Professor Dr. Hasan Mandal who stated that, as TÜBİTAK, among all institutions, we are the most supporting institutions which promote research and researcher, also mentioned that TÜBİTAK has both academic and entrepreneur identity. Professor Dr. Hasan Mandal who stated that, as the first entrepreneur of the Eskisehir Technology Development Zone, and as a person working in the Executive Boards of companies in these region, I know what the Technopark means. Therefore, he said, " Please, contact us. You may have negative experiences, but we came here to express ourselves more accurately.” Professor Dr. Mandal said that in the competition period of the industry, the key concept in the 60's is to produce, that in the 70's it has come to produce at low cost, that the concept of quality has been introduced in the 80's, and that the speed factor has been added in the 90's. Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal also expressed that, when it comes to 2000s, competence with information superiority has entered the circuit. He continued by saying that, “In this period, the knowledge generated by the cooperation with the competition comes to the forefront and for this reason Technoparks gain much more importance in a very different way.”

Reminding that the ratio of the industry in R&D share increased to 50 percent and providing information about the progress towards medium-high technology, TÜBİTAK president summarized the new era road map as follows: “We have a high technology rate of 4 percent which is 16 percent in the EU. By 2023, we will work based on qualified knowledge and human resources to raise 4 percent to 15s. In this context, he gave information especially about new support programs focused on high technology; High Technology Platforms, Industry Cooperation Networks Mechanism (SAYEM), Industrial PhD Program.

Mr. Hasan Gültekin, the Chairman of the executive board of the Technopark Ankara, spoke about why a techno center was built in İvedik, a developed industrial region in Ankara, and said: R&D and innovation are not concepts that everyone is hand in glove. We have established our vision of manufacturing in time by moving the industry at the center here, thinking about what we can do. Our authorities went to the USA and observed the technology. I went to South Korea, studied world examples for a powerful ecosystem. Stated that the profession inheritance is over, Gültekin said, “We employed people in our techno park, who were fired. Micro-scale and value-added industrial companies came to us and struggled for added value.” “We want a system to start new studies in these regions from TÜBİTAK.” said Gültekin, who said that they want İvedik to benefit from TTO supports. “Now the production under the counter era is over. From the shepherd in the mountain, everyone up to the president, should do R&D” he said.

After the speeches, TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal received information about Technopark Ankara and followed up with visiting incubation center and some companies in Technopark.