Business news

MINSK, 15 February (BelTA) – Belarus and Turkey will select the best joint scientific projects and start financing them in 2018, BelTA learned from the press service of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

“On 15 February a delegation of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) led by its President, Professor Arif Ergin paid a visit to the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus on 15 February. The fifth meeting of the joint committee on sci-tech cooperation between TUBITAK and the NASB was attended by Chairman of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences Vladimir Gusakov. An agreement was reached to select the best joint Belarusian-Turkish projects in Q1 2018 and began their funding in Q2 2018,” the press service said.

The selection of projects will be held as part of the competition held by the Belarusian National Foundation for Fundamental Research and TUBITAK. The sides are planning to set up a joint Belarusian-Turkish laboratory in photonics and nanophotonics at the Stepanov Institute of Physics at the NASB. Moreover, concrete steps will be taken to increase the involvement of Turkish-Belarusian organizations in the Horizon 2020 program.

All this is reflected in the final protocol which was signed by Vladimir Gusakov and Arif Ergin. The Belarusian side proposed to organize an exhibition of NASB developments in Turkey to map out priority research projects and set up joint teams to implement them.

Cooperation between the NASB and Turkey relies on an agreement singed by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey in 2002, and the agreement on scientific cooperation between the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the Turkish Academy of Sciences signed in 2009. Currently, Belarusian and Turkish scientists are implementing three projects in the field of material science, physics engineering.