MICHIGAN – Anatolia News Agency
A top Turkish scientific body has launched a campaign to entice Turkish academics working at United States universities back to Turkey by highlighting the caliber of the nation’s research and development, or R&D, culture.
As part of the “Destination: Turkey” campaign launched by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, or TÜBİTAK, top representatives from prominent Turkish industrial institutions visited Turkish academics in the U.S. to tell them about the R&D opportunities in Turkey to encourage them to return to Turkey.
In the first leg of a series of visits by TÜBİTAK, the Turkish delegation visited the city of Boston and the state of Michigan to meet Turkish academics.
The meeting was attended by more than 100 Turkish and foreign academics living in Michigan and surrounding states either working or continuing study in the U.S.
Yıldız Holding Human Resources, Law and Supply Chain Group head Melih Özuyar said at the meeting R&D potential under the Yıldız Holding roof was exceptional and that the holding would give those who accepted TÜBİTAK’s invitation to return to Turkey the opportunity to work at relevant projects in the Yıldız Holding portfolio.
Yıldız Holding owns the well-known food brand Ülker, producing biscuits, candy, dairy products, instant foods and other such products.
Özyuvar said the project enabled them to reach out to many research assistants in the U.S. and tell them about projects the holding is willing to develop in collaboration with cutting-edge scientists and researchers. “Taking part in this project is extremely important for us in order to provide a high-quality labor force to our company.”
He said the company was perfectly capable of creating the same opportunities for researchers as those in the U.S. “Today, our laboratories are equipped with almost the same technology as in laboratories in the U.S. and the EU,” he said, adding that wages were no longer below Western standards.
There were almost 250 R&D staffers in their companies and 200 of them were working in the comestibles departments, he said.
ASELSAN Defense Technologies Group General Manager for Unmanned Systems Bülent Bilgin also spoke at the meeting. ASELSAN attached the utmost importance to employing Turkish researchers who have worked in the EU or the U.S. because the company believed such researchers could bring special added value to the R&D process. “We want to benefit from the same technology as in U.S. and therefore we are devout supporters of, as well as grateful to, TÜBİTAK’s “Destination: Turkey” project,” he said.
This first meeting was attended by representatives from Ankara, Bahçeşehir, Boğaziçi, Ege Universities, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul Şehir University and Sabancı and Uludağ Universities, as well as representatives of the TÜBİTAK Institute for Space Research, the İzmir High Technology Institute and top officials from companies such as Yıldız Holding, ASELSAN, Arçelik, Türk Telekom A.Ş and FNSS.
