Turkey is going through a period of increased technological capability in terms of both physical hardware requirements and high-skilled labor. However, this brings with it new problems that need to be addressed. Turkey has to not only invest in qualified human capital and Research-Development activities but also to design policies that will encourage innovation activities and allow these activities to penetrate into the society in order to increase sustainable development and competitiveness.

TEKPOL is a research center affiliated to the President’s Office and established under the Middle East Technical University in order to directly support the design, implementation and evaluation stages of science, technology and innovation strategies and policies in primarily public institutions and then autonomous institutions, organizations and enterprises, to carry out research on related issues and to provide talented human capital that can take responsibility in this regard. It is the single research center that executes research and training activities simultenaously in science, technology and innovation studies. The organic link with the education programs of the Section of Science and Technology Policy Studies under the Graduate School of Social Sciences is one of the main descriptive elements of the Center. 

The center adopts an interdisciplinary approach to do research on economic, social and political factors affecting the process of technological change and innovation. The aim of TEKPOL is to fully understand how knowledge is created in the public and private sectors, how it permeates the economic sphere and how it is adopted and effectively used by economic actors, and to use the research results in the creation of science, technology and innovation policy and in the evaluation of the effectiveness of these policies. TEKPOL examines the contribution of science and technology to sustainable development. Such an effort entails the need to understand how information is created, disseminated and used by economic actors in the public and private sectors. Therefore, what the determinants of innovation and what socio-economic impacts of innovation activities are constitute a significant part of our research agenda.

Through the joint projects it has participated, conference organizations, consulting activities and the positions of its graduates in the business world, TEKPOL has a central role in the national network in science, technology and innovation policies. The research central has direct connections with ministries, development agencies, TUBITAK, Undersecretariat of the Defense Industry, Turkish Patent and Trademark Agency, Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV), TAI and Aselsan among the important defense industry companies, OSTIM and Ivedik among the technology development zones, and ODTÜ Teknokent and Cyberpark.

In addition, TEKPOL is in close connection and cooperation with the major research and educational institutions that developed their international network in relation to its main activity. TEKPOL is also in cooperation with IPTS (The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Seville) working under the General Directorate of Joint Research of the European Commission and UNU-MERIT (Maastricht Economic and social Research institute on Innovation and Technology), a joint research center of Maastricht University and United Nations University) on various issues. In addition, it is a member of FEMISE (Forum of Euro-Mediterranean Economic Research Institutes) in Marseilles, GLOBELICS (Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems) networks and International Schumpeter Organization; and also the founding member of EUROLICS (European Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems).

What has TEKPOL accomplished so far?

The establishment goals and operational objectives of the Center can be summarized as follows:

a)    To do research on science and technology policies and their development-related areas,

b)   To provide consultancy services to public and private institutions on science, technology and R&D policy issues,

c)    To help spread the understanding of information-based society

d)   To contribute to the creation of domestic policies on information and technology production, to absorb technology, to improve technological competencies and skills and to spread technology culture,

e)    To cooperate with national, international organizations and all related departments of METU in research subjects, to encourage interdisciplinary research and collaborations and to organize scientific meetings and training activities in this framework.

Within these objectives research, consulting, scientific event organization, conducting Science and Technology Policy Studies and educational activities on the basis of the organic ties with the United States constitute the main activities of the center. Since the establishment of the center, its activities have been continuing in these four main activity areas.

The activities of the center during the last 20 years are summarized in the table below. The physical, human and social capital of the Department of Science and Technology Policy Studies with which the Center has an organic bond are the main variables explaining activities in almost every area. TEKPOL team consists of 3 full-time faculty members, 11 affiliated researchers, 4 part-time faculty members and 2 research assistants. 

Since its establishment, the Center has completed a total of large and small 66 research projects, 21 of which are international and 45 of which are national. These projects have been funded by public institutions, universities and civil society organizations (NGOs), especially the EU and TUBITAK. In addition, especially in the last decade, there have been 16 international and national events, which have played an important role in the development of the center’s professional network. The Board membership of GLOBELICS and International Schumpeter Society, which are the leading organizations of technology and innovation economics studies of the faculty members supporting the Center is another important development that has led to the expansion of the Center’s network and its effectiveness. Almost 250 Masters and doctoral graduates from the Department of Science and Technology Policy Studies are of great importance not only for the development of a social and professional network of the Center but also for the provision of human capital that enables the execution of Center’s activities.

Center activities since its establishment

Brief evaluation of the last period

In the last five years, TEKPOL team produced a total of 24 international academic publications. The Center has an undeniable contribution to Turkish literature in science, technology and innovation studies. The classification of these academic publications is as follow;

• International publications
  • 15 SSCI  and SCI articles,
  • 2 International reports,
  • 1 International book (compilation),
  • 6 book chapters,
• National publication
  • 2 Turkish books
  • 8 Turkish academic articles,
  • Chapters in 10 Turkish books,
  • numerous short articles in popular media

In the last five years, TEKPOL has prepared 24 projects, 6 of which are international and 19 of which are national. Six of these projects are still in progress. Considering the entire project portfolio in the last five years, the total budget of the projects carried out is over TL 2.5 million. In these research projects, the work package leadership in H2020 project (FEUTURE) that aims to generate strategies for the future of the Turkey-European Union, and the writing the Turkey reports of Research and Innovation Observatory (RIO) 2015 (formerly ERA-WATCH 2012, 2013) for General Directorate of Research of European Commission by TEKPOL team played an important role in increasing the Center’s research prestige. The project portfolio of TEKPOL during the final plan period can be summarized as follows:

• International Projects (big): 1 FP7 project; 1 H2020 project; 1 AB Co-fund project; 1 European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• International Projects (small): 2 FEMISE projects; 3 European Commission projects (ERA-WATCH and RIO reports)
• National Projects (big): 2 TUBITAK projects
• National Projects (small): 6 BAP projects; 11 other institution projects

TEKPOL 20

In 2018, we are celebrating the 20th establishment anniversary of  TEKPOL through a series of events. In the events that we introduced with TEKPOL 20 label, we brought together the old and new generations who are interested in TEKPOL as well as discussing current topics. We also aimed to introduce TEKPOL to wider circles in these events. In this sense, we have designed a Turkish site in which all research outputs and an active blog are found: tekpol.org.

TEKPOL 20 Activities Program

• January 18, 2018, Entrepreneurship Workshop in Turkey, METU-TEKNOKENT ATOM. Within the scope of a TUBITAK funded research project, where the selection criteria for incubation and accelerators are discussed, a compilation book telling the entrepreneurial history of Turkey and including 20 authors from different areas is planned to be published.  This workshop, which brings together the authors of the book planned to be on the shelves in 2019, was the first event of TEKPOL 20.
• April-June 2018, TEKPOL Pizza Seminars. 8 seminars were held in different periods in the framework of TEKPOL pizza seminars where ideas, research findings and current topics were discussed in a more friendly environment. For the Program: tekpol.org.  
• Mayıs 15, 2018, TEKPOL 20. Year Symposium: Science and Technology Policy, Progress of Interdisciplinary Education and Research, METU-CCC. Within the scope of this activity we aim to bring researchers who played an important role in the development of TEKPOL, Dr. Ergun Türkcan, Prof. Dr. Hacer Ansal, Prof. Dr. Korkut Boratav and Prof. Dr. Erkan Erdil, who played a major role in the development of TEKPOL, exchanged ideas on interdisciplinary education and research, science and technology policies and TEKPOL themes.
• June, 4-19, 2018, COSMOS Photography Exhibition, METU-CCC Exhibition Hall. Dr. Muhsin Doğan, the former research assistant of TEKPOL, brought the stars to us again in his second solo exhibition. Prof. Dr. Nevzat Özgüven, former Assistant President of METU, Dr. Mete Çakmakcı, General Secretary of TTGV, and Prof. Dr. Yakup Kepenek, the founding director of TEKPOL, shared their memories about TEKPOL at the opening ceremony of the event; so, we also remembered the foundation of TEKPOL.
• June 15, 2018, Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0, Special Issue on Journal of Economics and Society. In this special edition now available on shelves, you can find articles that address digital transformation from different perspectives such as labor and education and opinions on the future of digital transformation.

Planned Tekpol 20 Activities

September 10-11, 2018, STS TURKEY Conference will be held in METU, CCC. Through this event that aims to bring together those who are interested in Science and Technology Studies in Turkey, TEKPOL shows that it is not only limited to science and technology policies. You can find detailed information on STS TURKEY website: http://ststurkey.net/tr/anasayfa/

In addition, Policy Talks will begin in cooperation with TTGV-TEKPOL in September 2018. The series of TEKPOL pizza seminars will be divided into two. TEKPOL pizza seminars will continue every 15 days but we will carry TTGV policy talks to Bilkent Cyberpark in order to expand the scope of TEKPOL.

The last event of TEKPOL 20 is planned to be a one-day meeting to be held in METU, CCC under the title of Science and Technology Policy in cooperation with TTGV-TEKPOL: Latest trends in the world and Turkey to take place in November, 2018. We aim to bring the current policy debate to the forefront with the participation of competent people in their fields.

You can have information on the education and research activities of TEKPOL, as a research center of its kind in Turkey with its education and research structure from the following websites:  stps.metu.edu.tr and tekpol.org. You can also follow us on facebook (metustsps), twitter (@odtutekpol) and instagram (odtu_tekpol).