The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) is organising the ICTürkiye2026 International Online Brokerage Event within the "Technical Assistance for Türkiye in Horizon Europe" Project, which is carried out under the Competitive Sectors Programme, implemented by the Ministry of Industry and Technology and co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of Türkiye. The event will be held fully online on 29 September 2026, in cooperation with the Enterprise Europe Network, and builds on the earlier ICTürkiye editions in the field of information and communication technologies.
ICTürkiye2026 is built for universities and research organisations, for SMEs and large companies, for technology developers and innovative start-ups, for public institutions and agencies, and for the sectoral associations and clusters that convene them. Across those groups, two kinds of participant tend to get the most from a brokerage event: the one arriving with a project idea that needs partners, and the one arriving with a capability that needs a project. Both are how consortia begin, and the event is structured so that they find each other before a deadline forces the question.
The 2026–2027 work programme is the final major package of funding under Horizon Europe, and most of what remains falls in 2027. A year ahead of a deadline sounds like comfortable margin. For everything except one thing, it is. The exception is the one element a proposal cannot generate on its own in its final weeks: a consortium that has already settled what it is proposing, and why it is the group to propose it.
This is what ICTürkiye2026 is scheduled around. The matchmaking platform stays open for five months after the closing session, from October 2026 into the first quarter of 2027, which is not the period around the event, but the period in which your proposals will be actually written.
The thematic areas
- Digital and Smart Health — innovative, sustainable and high-quality healthcare, AI-based tools, digital solutions and the digitalisation of health services
- Twin Green and Digital Transformation of Industry — the green and digital transition of manufacturing, construction and energy-intensive process industries
- Smart Mobility — connected, cooperative and automated mobility, multimodal transport, infrastructure, logistics, safety and smart urban mobility
- Smart and Renewable Energy — renewable generation, storage and flexibility, and the digitalisation of energy systems
ICTürkiye2026 programme opens with thematic information sessions on the Horizon Europe Programme and presentations on the calls ahead, delivered while those topics are still open enough for a proposal to become mature. The programme then moves from calls to practice through two hands-on workshops: one on Cascade Funding, covering Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP), available opportunities and the application process, and another on Lump Sum Funding, focusing on budget and work package design, implementation and evidence tracking. From there the floor turns over to the participants. In the pitching sessions, a project idea is put in front of the people who could actually join it, an exercise quite different from presenting an organisation, because it requires saying what is missing from the consortium as clearly as what is already in it. Running alongside and beyond all of this is the bilateral meeting platform, where participants build a cooperation profile, request meetings in advance, and keep meeting for five months after the closing session. Most brokerage events end when the last session does. This one is designed to still be working when the calls open.
The arithmetic makes the case on its own. Horizon Europe's cumulative success rate stood at roughly 14 per cent at the start of 2026 and has been drifting downwards. Commission analysis of participation patterns is consistent about where the constraint sits: more successful participation depends above all on increasing the number of proposals submitted and submissions depend on partnerships that already exist when a call opens. That is the gap ICTürkiye2026 is meant to close. Its purpose is to raise the participation of Turkish and European organisations in Horizon Europe by making the partnership stage tractable: strengthening the connections between the Turkish and European research and innovation ecosystems, giving participants a current and accurate picture of the funding on the table, and putting them in the room together early enough for a consortium to form deliberately rather than in haste. Proposals written by such consortia tend to be better proposals and the collaboration behind them usually outlives the project that occasioned it.
That last point is worth holding onto, because the programme itself is finishing. Horizon Europe's successor will carry the same name, with a proposed budget of €175 billion, beginning in 2028 and it will ask of applicants exactly what a 2027 consortium produces: a working relationship and a shared record of having delivered together. The partnerships formed at ICTürkiye2026 are aimed at the final calls of this programme and at the first calls of the next one.
We would be delighted to welcome you to ICTürkiye2026. Open to participants from across the Horizon Europe community and all countries eligible to participate in the Programme, the event offers an international meeting point for organisations looking to build new partnerships, develop project ideas and prepare together for the calls ahead. We look forward to seeing you online on 29 September 2026.
Participants are asked to register and complete their cooperation profiles on the B2Match platform at: https://www.b2match.com/e/icturkiye2026-international-brokerage-event
For further information: icturkiye2026@sistemglobal.com.tr