Turkey eyes collaboration with Qatar in science and technology

Turkish research agency, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) has proposed collaboration with Qatar in several areas such as space, energy, aviation and many more.
“We hope to expand the scope of joint activities as well as the areas of collaboration into a number of fields such as energy, aviation, space, biotechnology, health and several more programmes,” Dr Orkun Hasekioglu, vice president, TUBITAK, said in Doha recently.
He was speaking at the launch event of the joint funding initiative on cybersecurity by TUBITAK and Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).
Dr Hasekioglu noted that such a collaboration would immensely help both the countries as well as in meeting the Grand Challenges specified in Qatar National Research Strategy.
“Some of the areas where we can work within the expertise of TUBITAK are designing and building unmanned aerial vehicles, building a micro factory for inexpensive electric cars;  water treatment and desalination facilities, symbiotic cities, building gas turbine internal combustion engines, building next generation genome sequencing systems,  building satellites for surveillance and communications, building food processing  plants and detection and counter measures for chemical and biological agents,” continued Dr Hasekioglu.
He also pointed out that there should be a mechanism for the effective implementation of the programmes between both the countries such as  a joint committee, a co-ordination office, a research centre or all of them.
Referring to the co-operation between QNRF and TUBITAK on cybersecurity research, he said it would constitute the beginning of many other significant, high-impact partnerships in science and technology between Qatar and Turkey. “In future calls, we are planning to expand the programme, both in magnitude and scope,” he explained.
According to the official, establishing deep collaboration in all fields,  most importantly in science, technology and innovation is a top priority for his organisation. “In 2015, we  signed an agreement to enhance activities  in the field of science and technology and innovation between Qatar and Turkey.
The agreement in 2015 highlighted that both the organisations will support science, technology and innovation in both Turkey and Qatar.  It also includes scholarships for students, establishing research centres in Turkey and Qatar that will help joint operations for developing advanced technologies for  scientists  and engineers,” he added.