Mevlana Development Agency, continuing its activities in the TR-52 Konya-Karaman Region under the coordination of the T.R. Ministry of Industry and Technology General Directorate of Development Agencies, organized an “R&D Center Specialization” training to increase the institutional capacities of R&D and design centers located in Konya.

The training, held at Innopark Konya Technology Development Center, lasted a total of 27 hours. After the completion of the training, successful participants were awarded R&D Center Specialization certificates.

Evaluating the training program conducted by the Agency, Mevlana Development Agency Secretary General Dr. İhsan Bostancı said, “As we all closely follow, R&D and innovation have become indispensable elements of competition today. Countries whose industries are supported by effective R&D incentives rank at the highest levels in world competitiveness rankings. According to reports prepared by the OECD, 50% of countries' economic growth depends on technological innovations. From this point of view, all countries in the world provide significant support to entrepreneurship and innovation activities, seeing innovation activities as the fundamental element of sustainable economic growth. At this point, our state, especially in recent years, through our Ministry of Industry and Technology and its affiliated and related organizations, has been providing great support and incentives for high-tech and value-added products that will contribute to the country's economy. Many practices are being implemented to establish new R&D and design centers, ensure the sustainability of existing centers, and strengthen their infrastructures and human resources. At the core of these efforts is Law No. 5746 on supporting research, development, and design activities, which was published to support the production of technological knowledge in the private sector, innovation in products and production processes, commercialization of technological knowledge, and an increase in the employment of R&D personnel and qualified workforce, and includes many incentive titles. When we look at the production potential of our city, known as the granary of our country, which has reaped the fruits of its R&D and innovative technology efforts, especially in the last 20 years, we see that it has become a production and industrial center that produces in more than 80 sectors with over 3400 exporting companies, selling these products to more than 180 countries, and achieving an export of 3.36 Billion Dollars by the end of 2023. The fact that our city has increased its exports 39 times compared to 2000 and that the share of the manufacturing industry in exports is 93.5% makes us happy and hopeful for the future. The transition to high-tech production with new investments in R&D and innovative technologies will further strengthen our city's place among the leading industrial cities of both our country and the world, and will also increase its share in exports thanks to value-added production. As we stated at the beginning, it is an undeniable fact that the way to achieve this is by increasing the number and quality of R&D and design centers. In this context, when we look at the current situation of our city, we see that there are 22 R&D centers and 1 design center, approximately 700 people work in these centers, the total number of ongoing projects is 230, and with these data, our city ranks 9th in our country. Considering both the export figures and the production dynamics of our city, we do not consider this number sufficient, and I would especially like to state that we are ready to do our best to both increase the number of R&D and design centers and to identify the needs of existing centers and solve their problems. The subject of R&D and design, which is the focus of this training program organized by our Agency, is at the center of both our financial support and technical support mechanisms as an institution. We continue our work on these issues with our stakeholder institutions, especially our Provincial Directorate of Industry and Technology. I would especially like to state that in the support programs announced by our Agency to date, projects committed to producing products based on R&D and innovative technology have always been prioritized for support, and we have made positive discrimination in this regard. Within the scope of the Transformation in Manufacturing Industry Technical Support Program, which we have opened to applications from our private sector representatives since 2020 and is currently open; I would like to announce once again that activities aimed at establishing new R&D and design centers in companies operating in the manufacturing industry or meeting the consultancy needs of existing R&D and design centers will be supported. With this training program organized by our Agency, we aimed to increase the institutional capacities of R&D and design centers in our city. During the 27-hour training, education was provided on topics such as R&D project development and preparation, R&D and technology management, R&D and intellectual property, problem-solving techniques - TRIZ, project cycle/execution from a technical and financial perspective, and product design and development management. We are fully convinced that the training provided by highly valuable and expert trainers will make significant contributions to the professional development of our personnel working in R&D centers in our city. With these feelings and thoughts, I wish this training program to be beneficial” he stated.