SCST is chaired by the Prime Minister and composed of its permanent council members of Ministers of State, National Defense, Finance, National Education, Health, Forestry and Rural Affairs, Industry and Trade, Energy and Natural Resources, Environment and Forest, Chairman of Council of Higher Education, Undersecretary of State Planning Organization, Undersecretaries of Treasury and Foreign Trade, Chairman of Turkish Atomic Energy Authority, President of TÜBİTAK and a Vice President, General Director of Turkish Radio and Television, Chairman of Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, and a member to be appointed by a university to be designated by the Council of Higher Education with other relevant stakeholders that are invited to the meetings with advisory capacity. In total, over one hundred different actors from the governmental bodies, higher education and business enterprise sectors are represented in SCST meetings. Hence, SCST is the culmination of governmental and non-governmental stakeholders from across Turkey in the STI fields. The inclusion of such a broad base of stakeholders in SCST not only serves as an effective medium for systematic consultation and dialogue, but also sustains robust interactions among the stakeholders, which enables a more participatory policy-making process. Moreover, SCST contributes to diffusing the developments on recent STI policies while increasing commitments for policy implementation. The biannual meetings of SCST since 2005 have further served to advance a culture within the participating institutions themselves, which holds promise to further the level of S&T governance to sustain the STI impetus in which Turkey is currently engaged.
