The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal attended the "Turkey Open Science Summit 2018" hosted by Sabancı University at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Speaking at the summit, Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal stated that when looking at Turkey's exports of high-tech products at the point of Turkey's current account deficit, the picture is not encouraging. Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal said, "When we look at the other countries we refer to, this figure is 25 percent in China, 27 percent in South Korea, and the average of the European Union is around 16 percent. If we really want to move towards a high-tech-oriented knowledge production, then we need cooperation and open innovation. The need for open science and open access will find its place as a value chain not only in academia but also in the business world." Prof. Dr. Mandal stated that TÜBİTAK has been involved in the process since its inception through ULAKBİM within the scope of open access activities in Turkey, and reported that accessible data is collected at "archive.ulakbim.gov.tr" and that more than 500 thousand works from 62 institutions have already been brought together. Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal mentioned that a significant portion of these works are TÜBİTAK-focused articles published through the DergiPark system and said, "Our universities have started this process strongly. TÜBİTAK and the Council of Higher Education need to embrace this process more, because as long as these studies do not turn into a national top policy, the continuity of the excitement in our universities is limited. During the Open Access Week, which will take place between October 22-28, 2018, we will come up with a new interface at 'aperta.ulakbim.gov.tr'. Through this interface, we are working on a policy document for TÜBİTAK-oriented processes. Our most important stakeholder institution here is the Council of Higher Education (YÖK). We want to turn these studies into a policy document in cooperation with YÖK. At the end of October, we will open 'aperta.ulakbim.gov.tr' and share the data we have through it." He added.

"Turkey's Most Important Need is to Produce Its Own High Technology Products"

Prof. Dr. Mandal, President of TÜBİTAK, stated that Turkey's most important agenda in terms of difficulty is the current account deficit, and listed the things that can be done to eliminate it. Stating that Turkey needs to increase its share in the production of its own high-tech products, Prof. Dr. Mandal continued as follows: "If Turkey cannot develop its own domestic and national high-tech products, it may be able to delay this current account deficit through other methods. However, if we cannot find a solution to this problem, the current account deficit will be on our agenda in the medium and long term. It is possible to solve this problem by increasing our share of high-tech products. What is needed is to develop more domestic and national products with our own technology and to cooperate more with the world. For this, both academia and the business world need to develop working models together. TÜBİTAK has initiated new processes for both technology development and product development for high-tech products, which it has been trying to do especially in the recent period. Especially in the models created with our new Presidential Government System, it is demanded to work in this direction. Turkey now has its own programs to develop domestic and national products. We call these high technology platforms."

Industry Doctorate Program

Stating that one of the concepts involved in high-tech product processes is the need for qualified human resources, the President of TÜBİTAK said that the recently introduced "Industry Doctorate Program" is entirely aimed at this purpose. Prof. Dr. Mandal also stated that the "Repatriation Mobilization Program" included in the government's 100-Day Action Plan also has this purpose, and said, "We are currently at the final stage of this Program. In the near future, a new, very strong and unique support program will be launched by our Minister for both Turkey's own human resources abroad and qualified human resources from other countries to come to Turkey. Our Minister will share the developments regarding the program with the public in the near future."

Following Prof. Dr. Mandal's speech, Sabancı Holding CEO Mehmet Göçmen gave a speech on "Open Innovation, Industry Perspective". The summit continued throughout the day with sessions on "Open Science Policies, Infrastructures and Impact on Innovation in Europe", "European Open Science Cloud and OpenAIRE", "Big Open Science in Practice".