Turkey: getting to grips with the framework programme
Turkey is a relative newcomer to the Framework Programme (FP). While Turkish researchers participated under the international scientific cooperation (INCO) section of FP5, the country did not become a full participant until 2003, under FP6. In an interview with CORDIS News, Mehmet Gokgoz, Director of the Turkish Research and Business Organisation (TURBO) ,explained how his organisation has been helping the country's public and private research community in their steep learning curve, discovering the 'DOs' and 'DON'Ts' of the programme, and readying them for participation under FP7. Established in 2004 by the Turkish Scientific Research Council (TUBITAK) and several major national trade and business federations (TOBB, KOSGEB, TESK), TURBO aims to help Turkey attain maximum success in the EU's research and technological development (RTD) and private sector-oriented programmes within the framework of the Lisbon Strategy. Based in Brussels, the organisation provides information, communication, and consultancy and training services to would-be Turkish participants in the FP, such as public research institutes and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). It also provides support to the country's national contact points (NCPs), relaying information on events and issues at the heart of EU research policy and facilitating meetings between them and their counterparts from other countries. 'We deem ourselves to be a sort of 'early-warning' system for all our members,' explained Mr Gokgoz. For its biggest member, TUBITAK, this involves attending information days and conferences on research policy and informing the public research community of the issues of the day. For the business community, TURBO keeps an eye on the Multiannual Programme for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship (MAP), soon to be known as the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), and helps SMEs to get to grips with proposal writing. TURBO also helps it members find partners with whom they can participate in FP6, mainly through IGLO, the informal group of RTD liaison offices with which it is affiliated. 'TUBITAK is organising information days practically every day in Turkey' explained Mr Gokgoz. 'We are visiting universities and research institutes across the country where we give lectures and training courses.' This is an important task given the lack of initial understanding in the Turkish research community of FP6. 'In the beginning, we didn't know very much,' explained Mr Gokgoz. He referred to conversations he had with Turkish NCPs who likened themselves to swimmers in the sea. 'They were pushed to the sea, without knowing how to swim and asked to be the champions.' A breakdown of FP6 participation by country, however, would suggest that Turkish NCPs and TURBO have been effective in their work, and that Turkish researchers have risen to the occasion. By March 2006, a total of 2,455 Turkish teams took part in the projects proposed, 370 of them were successful. These first tangible results are very encouraging, said Mr Gokgoz. This view is reinforced if one considers that there are only 27,000 full time researchers in Turkey compared to 480,000 in Germany, one of the top performers in FP6. 'If you look at the ratio of the number of researchers to the number of FP projects for each country, you see that the ratio is nearly the same which shows that Turkish researchers are as productive as their German counterparts,' he surmised. TURBO's members are on the whole positive about the success rate of their participation in FP6, and there is a general understanding and acceptance that participating for the first time will present some challenges, said Mr Gokgoz. Indeed, FP6 has been a huge learning process for TURBO members, who now find themselves in a much 'bigger playing field'. 'Turkish universities are used to competing with one another through the TUBITAK programme calls,' said Mr Gokgoz. 'But competing in a European area is a completely different context.' It involves competing with the 'best of the best' and adapting to working in very large consortia, such as Networks of Excellence (NoE) and Integrated Projects (IPs). 'We are doing our best to educate would-be participants about these challenges,' he said. 'This is the homework of TURBO and its members.' But Member State governments and the European Commission also have homework of their own to do. They too must understand and tackle the obstacles currently hindering the full and equal participation of the Turkish research community. One area of concern is the lack of free mobility within the EU for researchers coming from Turkish organisations. Turkish researchers who wish to visit EU Member State are required to apply for visas, the criteria and conditions of which vary from country to country. 'There wasn't much we [TURBO] could do about this as it falls within the jurisdiction of national governments.' Raising awareness of the problem and showing that although a full participant, Turkey is unable to compete on an equal footing, is all that TURBO can do, said Mr Gokgoz. 'This affects the 'competition' itself, because Turkish partners cannot move freely; it stops them from finding suitable projects.' The issue of researcher mobility has not gone unnoticed by the European Commission, which in October 2005 introduced a 'scientific visa' to facilitate the movement of researchers from non-EU countries and associated countries within the EU and enable nationals of all non-EU countries to reside for limited periods in a Member State for specific research purposes (temporary contract, grant, etc.). 'The Commission is trying to do something about this problem, it is not fully fledged but there is goodwill on their side,' noted Mr Gokgoz, who hopes that this will be taken further under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). TURBO would also like to have the support of the Commission to 'raise awareness of the role of the Turkish Research Area within the European Research Area [ERA]'. Another area which will require further attention in FP7 is the inclusion of Turkish seconded experts in project evaluation panels. Experts from Turkey were not eligible to participate under FP6 as the country was still an associated country at the time. The situation is likely to change now that Turkey has acquired 'candidate country' status. Mr Gokgoz is also hopeful that his country's experts will also be included in the staffing of the European Research Council (ERC). As regards FP7, Mr Gokgoz said that TURBO has highlighted all of the programme's new elements, as well as some 'grey areas' which it felt Turkey's NCPs and TUBITAK should be aware of so that they could ask the right questions in the relevant fora. 'The proposal is well defined for the Member States but not for countries like us,' said Mr Gokgoz. For example, how Turkey is to be incorporated into the proposed security programme is still unknown. Another grey area is the 'risk-sharing finance facility', which the European Investment Bank (EIB) is making available to partners in large projects under FP7 to cover additional project costs. 'We feel that this may be a problem to us,' surmised Mr Gokgoz. 'If you look at the EIB's lending criteria you will see that it will not provide credit to a country below the established credit rate. Turkey is below the current credit rate so how can we benefit from this facility?,' he asked.
Countries
Türkiye