The Supreme Council for Science and Technology (SCST)

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28 Eyl 2010
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The Supreme Council for Science and Technology (SCST) is the highest ranking STI policy-making body in Turkey chaired by the Prime Minister with the decision-making power for national S&T and innovation policy.

SCST was established and granted the role of identifying, monitoring and coordinating policies in S&T areas in accordance with national goals for economic and social development and national security. Accountable directly to the Prime Minister, SCST upholds important functions, such as to assist the government in determining long-term S&T policies (Box 1). Established in 1983, SCST realized its first operational meeting in 1989, thus opening a new era for the STI policy system, and started to convene with increasing intensity towards and after the turn of the new millennium. Since the mid-nineties, SCST had also been engaged in a shift towards innovation oriented S&T policies. Starting with the 10th meeting in 2005, this momentum was transitioned into the dynamic of meeting two times annually. The 21st meeting was realized in June 2010.

Box 1: Functions of SCST

According to statutory decree 77, The Supreme Council for Science and Technology (SCST) was established to fulfill the functions determined as: 
 
a) To assist the government in the determination of long-term S&T policies,
b) To identify R&D targets related to S&T areas,
c) To identify the priority areas in R&D and prepare related plans and programs,
d) In accordance with these plans and programs, to assign tasks to public organs as well as to cooperate with the business enterprise sector as necessary to identify regulations and promotion schemes related to business enterprise sector,
e) To have bills and legislations prepared aiming to develop and increase the effectiveness of the S&T system,
f) To identify the means for development and effective utilization of R&D human resources, and assure their implementation,
g) To set the procedures for establishment of R&D centers of private institutions, and monitoring and evaluating their activities,
h) To determine in which research fields and in what proportions the R&D investment is to be made,
i) To provide coordination among sectors and institutions in programming and implementation stages.

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 s...