Cooperation Protocol for “Industry of the Future” from ITU and ICI

ICI and ITU signed a protocol to increase Türkiye’s R&D and innovation capacity. Within the scope of the protocol, it was decided to establish ICI Industrial Design and Prototyping Center.

Istanbul Technical University (ITU), 1773 ITU Technopark and Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) signed a protocol to strengthen university-industry cooperation. Our Rector Prof. Dr. İsmail Koyuncu and Erdal Bahçıvan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ICI, attended the signing ceremony held at ICI on May 28.

Within the scope of the protocol, which aims to increase Türkiye’s R&D and innovation capacity and to develop academy-partnered R&D and P&D projects to meet the needs of the industry, it is aimed to ensure effective, efficient and impact-oriented cooperation of industry and academia. ICI and ITU will also collaborate for a comprehensive center structure that will provide prototyping, user experience and consultancy services in the field of industrial design.

The scope of university-industry cooperation was grouped under three main headings: ‘Education and Training’, ‘R&D and Innovation’, ‘Interaction and Cooperation Development’. While categories of internship cooperation, joint training and certificate programs, sectoral seminars and courses are prioritized under the heading of ‘Education and Training’, it was decided to carry out various activities, including project collaborations, thesis collaborations, commercialization collaborations, and activities to be carried out in the technology development zone under the heading of ‘R&D and Innovation’. Under the heading of ‘Interaction and Cooperation Development’, it was planned to address university-industry meetings, dissemination of laboratory, testing and analysis services, and involvement of industrialists as speakers or mentors within the university.

“Building the industry of the future with ITU, which transforms the future”

Our Rector Prof. Dr. İsmail Koyuncu pointed out that university-industry cooperation is one of the high-priority agenda items of ITU and said the following in his speech: “ICI Industrial Design and Prototyping Center, launched by ICI and ITU, will be an exemplary center where the ‘Active Learning’, ‘Impact-Oriented Research’ and ‘Digital/Technological Transformation’ models conceptualized by ITU as a new form of education will be implemented. With this center, it becomes very important to support the theoretical engineering and architecture education with extracurricular activities. ITU has already started a microcredential application for extracurricular activities whose credits are reflected in the diploma supplement. We can see that extracurricular activities have great returns in business life as well.

Similarly, ICI Industrial Design and Prototyping Center will have a very valuable function in the activities of our project teams, which play very active roles at ITU. Moreover, we anticipate that the interaction between the business world and scientists will increase and studies with high added value will emerge. ITU SANALTTO, which we have recently launched, also assumes a useful function in this sense. We aim for ICI Industrial Design and Prototyping Center to work 24/7 and serve academics and students not only from ITU but also from all universities in Istanbul. We also want to establish a contact point with ICI on our campuses; in this way, our industrialists will be able to establish better communication with our professors and students. As a concrete example of this, we started to see the benefits of the contact point we established with SAHA ISTANBUL. In addition, the workshops and conferences to be organized through the cooperation of ITU TTO and ICI will also be of great benefit.”

“Our primary goal is university-industry cooperation”

Erdal Bahçıvan, ICI Chairman of the Board of Directors, emphasized that ITU has provided unforgettable benefits to the industry so far and said the following in his speech at the protocol signing ceremony:

“While ITU has provided unforgettable benefits to our industry so far, it also makes valuable contributions to the development of university-industry cooperation, which is the primary goal of Istanbul Chamber of Industry. The ICI-ITU academic journey, which has been going on for more than 10 years, creates projects and solutions that make us all proud and happy with the understanding of mutual dialog, consultation and result-oriented cooperation. As Istanbul Chamber of Industry, we will continue to build different cooperation models and support mechanisms and bring together our industrialists and academia, with the awareness of our role and responsibility in university-industry cooperation. I hope that our protocol will lead to beneficial outcomes for both institutions.”

Prototyping center from ICI and ITU

The protocol, which will also facilitate the industry’s access to qualified information and qualified personnel, aims to provide the industry with an innovative and sustainable structure in which its value-added product capacity is increased, to increase the rate of medium-high and high-tech production by ensuring the flow of information and experience between industry and universities, to increase the contribution of academic studies to economic development by applying them to the industry and to support technology transfer, to support industrialists of the future through collaborations in the field of entrepreneurship, and to develop innovative applications and products that can provide solutions for industrialists.

In this context, ICI and ITU will cooperate for a comprehensive center structure that will provide prototyping, user experience and consultancy services in the field of industrial design. The center will provide industrial design support from A to Z for industrialists, entrepreneurs, industrial designers and students.

Cooperation for qualified human resources

While it is stated that with the protocol signed with ITU, studies will be carried out to enable companies to access the qualified human resources needed in the industry, it is aimed to support collaborations by providing companies with the laboratory infrastructure within the university, especially the prototyping center, and tax exemptions and various support opportunities in the studies to be carried out through 1773 ITU Technopark. Istanbul Technical University’s (ITU) Virtual Technology Transfer Platform (ITU SANALTTO) will contribute to the development of cooperation between ITU and ICI by serving as an interface for industrialists.

The protocol, which also includes cooperation in providing sectoral training and seminars within the university by voluntary and interested representatives of ICI member companies, includes joint work with the relevant units and affiliates of the university on entrepreneurship issues through ICI’s vision of raising the industrialists of the future.