Turkish researchers, who went abroad because they could not find enough support and working environment, started to return.

The resources and investments allocated to R&D in Turkey in recent years bear fruit. Turkish researchers, who went abroad because they could not find sufficient support and working environment, started to return. Minister of Industry and Technology Nihat Ergün announced that the number of applications for returning to Turkey increased 5 times compared to the previous year, following the scholarship program initiated by TÜBİTAK. Ergün said that 117 researchers applied for return this year and 75 percent of them were from the USA.

Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün said, “So far in 2013, 117 Turkish researchers have applied to return to our country. 74 of the applications were supported and the researchers returned. 31 applications are still being evaluated.” said.

While 75 percent of the applications came from the United States, Germany, Canada, Austria, England, Italy, Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Israel and Bosnia-Herzegovina came. Researchers returning to Turkey within the scope of the program can carry out their studies in universities, public R&D centers and private institutions carrying out R&D activities.

Noting that universities are the most preferred institutions with a rate of 88 percent, Ergün said, “10 researchers applied to public research institutes to return, while 3 researchers came to industrial organizations. The most preferred universities were METU (16), Bilkent (15) and Sabancı (10). These were followed by Abdullah Gül University (5). If the returning researchers are employed on a permanent basis in the institutions they came from, their scholarships continue.” he said.

Within the scope of the '2232 Return to the Country Research Scholarship Program' initiated by the TÜBİTAK Scientist Support Department, researchers are given a monthly scholarship of 2 thousand 3 TL for 250 years. Researchers who start working in any institution upon their return continue to receive the same scholarship. At the same time, researchers who can receive 25 thousand TL support for their research in Turkey can also apply to other support programs of TUBITAK in order to increase their contributions to the field of science and technology. In addition, the travel expenses of the researchers to Turkey and the health insurance expenses during the scholarship period are covered by TÜBİTAK.

📩 03/11/2013 21:56