ODTÜ Teknokent; the First Technology Park of Turkey
With the ultimate goal of creating the synergy between industry, university and public institutions through infrastructural/structural opportunities developed for academicians, researchers, entrepreneurs and companies using/producing technology, ODTÜ Teknokent is the first, most innovative and most mature technology park in Turkey.
Combining ODTU’s (Middle East Technical University) research capacity and information pool with the innovative capacity of entrepreneurs, ODTU Teknokent has created a momentum in Turkey’s technology accumulation; It has become a successful model with its management experiences and projects for the formation of both the legal frame and the development of other technology parks in Turkey.
It is established with the purpose to play a role in directing the technology production and experience by supporting enterprises and encouraging innovations and to be one of the important elements of regional sustainable development among mainly the European Union countries that will strengthen international collaboration, creates an environment for the transfer of technology through giving priority to those companies that are capable to compete at global scale.
At present, ODTÜ Teknokent is not only the first technology park of Turkey but also is a model that is appropriated by many newly developing technology park administrations so as to benefit from the experiences of ODTÜ Teknokent in their development processes.
ODTÜ Teknokent has reached to a scale of 300 firms more than %50 set up in ODTÜ Teknokent and %75 of which are SME’s, employing more than 4100 personnel and carrying out R&D activities in a 120.000 m2 enclosed area, in a 10 years period with only using its own resources it aims to become one of the world’s leading technology development zones.
The existing company profile of ODTÜ Teknokent is based on high technology research, software development, IT, defence and electronics industry. The incubation centre serves more than 40 micro sized companies including spin offs from Middle East Technical University. As the result of the encouragements, more than 930 R&D projects have been completed since 2002. Within the context of these R&D projects, 167 different companies had close cooperation with more than 545 academicians from 44 different departments of the university.
In accordance with the prioritized areas of ODTÜ; ICT- Telecommunication, High-tech Comsumer Electronics, Life Sciences , and of course Defence Industry are the strategic areas. ODTÜ Teknokent is constantly developing new policies and supporting programs in these areas by hosting the largest companies of Turkey to share their know-how and projects with the smaller companies. This model provides the smaller ones the chance to develop deeper know-how in very specific areas and the larger companies to become more innovative and to be more flexible and avoid being oversized.
In general, the policy is to create clusters by developing incubation programs and/or environments around anchor companies; key players of international market, and place smaller, flexible, capable SME’s around these companies which is a model already in use for the defence industry. Teknokent Defence Industry Cluster (TSSK), as the most effective cluster in Turkish Defence Industry, brings ODTU Teknokent defence industry companies together and creates an environment where they can share their know-how, future projects, needs, problems etc. The objectives of TSSK can be summarized as increasing the recognition of our defence industry companies, improving the capabilities of these companies, increasing the cooperation and communication among its members, detecting and defining investment areas, facilitating internationalization, and providing the necessary environment which will help to use military solutions for civil needs.
Within the framework of its strategic plan, ODTÜ Teknokent is working hard to encourage techno-preneurship, facilitate university-industry convergence and increase internationalization of its companies. Incubation Center, Business Plan Contest, Business Accelerator, Technology Transfer Office, Pre-incubation Centre for Digital Gaming and Association for Business Angels Network are the major components of this quest. Under these programs, chance is being given to transform new ideas to businesses. These programs are supporting mechanisms for sustainability of technology parks with new start up-spin off companies.
Several projects are being carried out to support the internationalization process of ODTÜ Teknokent companies. Most important ones within these projects are Enterprise Europe Network –Business Support Network Anatolia (BSN Anatolia) and UR-GE (Support for International Competitiveness). In addition to the projects, there are agreements and memberships with international actors to link the companies to international networks. Co-operations with The Digital City (United Kingdom) and Sophia Antipolis (France) together with the memberships of European Cluster Collaboration Platform and International Association of Science Parks are important international links.
Moreover, ODTÜ Teknokent has also a significant know-how on technopark establishment and management issues, its know-how attracts great interest from wide geography. Negotiations are ongoing with Middle East and Middle Asia companies in terms of establishing technology parks in these countries. Some of these countries are Oman, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Tunisia..etc. ODTÜ Teknokent has been invited to these countries and paid onsite-visits to each. Negotiations about the nature of the agreements and their contents are still in progress.
Defence Industry in ODTÜ Teknokent
Founded in 2010, Teknokent Defense Industry Cluster, TSSK, represents the high technology cluster of defense, aerospace and security industries operating in Ankara, Turkey. At present, it consists of 70 member companies operating in ODTÜ Teknokent, but intends to embrace all defense industry companies of the region, that are developing high-tech innovations in the sector. TSSK has close relations with the Undersecretariat of Defense (SSM), and is a member of Defense Industry Manufacturers Association (SASAD) as well as the Turkish Defense Alliance.
Turkey ranks the 15th among the global top military spenders and the 6th in Europe, accounting for 1.1% of global military spending for 2011. The defense budget for the 2012 fiscal year indicates a 7.4% increase over 2011 defense spending, comprising 1.3% of the GDP of the country for 2012. Thus, defense industry is considered to be the driving force of the technology base of the country and is expected to become the key driver of Turkish Economy in a couple of years. Turkish defense industry has been experiencing a rapid growth in recent years, owing to the government’s strategic decision to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign procurement, to increase the production of indigenous solutions, products and systems for use by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), as well as to attain technological competence in the market. As of today, more than 50% of the forces’ needs are satisfied through domestic supplies. The expectations are, this growth can only be sustained through high technology development via investment of funds along with human factor for research and development activities. To this end, Turkish Armed Forces, the SSM and Ministry of National Defense have allocated considerable financial resources, around 50 million USD on annual basis, for high technology R&D activities to improve the country’s technological infrastructure. Consequently, the SSM issued a Defense R&D Road Map for the optimization of allocated resources, determined and prioritized R&D projects in line with the needs and objectives of the main system projects that will involve collaboration of industries, universities and research organizations.
TSSK located in ODTÜ Teknokent at the heart of the capital of Turkey and surrounded by the region’s most renowned university as well as various research centers many of which focus on defense technologies, hosts many companies that perform intensive R&D activities for defense industry. The majority of these companies are privately owned, high-tech SMEs operating in the development of solutions for manned and unmanned vehicles; advanced materials, CBRN technologies, protective vehicle and material technologies; human-machine interface; cryptography, coding and encryption, electronic intelligence systems; modeling and simulation, simulation systems; communication, electronic and information systems; sensors and electronic systems, dataLink technologies as well as the various related engineering services such as testing, calibration, modeling and maintenance. The top-tier contractors of the Turkish defense industry, ASELSAN, HAVELSAN and TAI, also have their R&D departments located in Teknokent and they are the members of the cluster, TSSK, as well. Owing to the abundance of technology developing, high quality companies collaborating with the top-tier contractors and among themselves, ODTÜ Teknokent is a center of attraction and TSSK is a house for national and international defense companies.
TSSK is commissioned to contribute to the development of the cluster members by furthering the cooperation within and outside the cluster, promoting its members’ competencies and know how in the international market, facilitating university-industry collaboration as well as through intensive communication and information sharing with national policy makers. The driving force of the cluster is the R&D projects stimulated by the synergy between university, industry and research. The cluster members employ around 1000 R&D personnel and currently, there are approximately 150 active R&D projects being conducted for defense industry by the members of TSSK.
Currently, the cluster is financed by the Turkish Ministry of Economy for a $3.6 million project, which aims at internationalization and improving the export capabilities of the cluster with its members by creating sustainable, competitive advantage for the firms in defense sector. Within the scope of this project, TSSK members are trained and certified on technical necessities, managerial and marketing issues; the cluster attends international trade shows and fairs, visits other high-technology defense cluster(s), organizes trade missions to countries of interest and hosts foreign trade missions made to the cluster in search for opportunities of cooperation.
International markets and competition have become more and more important for the companies. Majority of TSSK companies are currently exporting technology to various countries in the world and envision expanding these export activities even more. Assisting member companies in their export activities and networking are amongst TSSK’s top priorities. With all the support and incentives by the government and from abroad, ODTÜ Teknokent and TSSK offer unique opportunities to companies to strengthen and to improve their positions in domestic and international markets, especially the Middle East and Middle Asia countries.
