In this unprecedented crisis of COVID-19 we are living, our team complying with the directives of MoIT and TUBITAK, is now working remotely from home.

Nevertheless, you can still reach us and we are available to help you with consultations and advice whenever you need it. You can reach us through the following channels:

• Our TH2020 Helpdesk
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For urgent matters you can reach out to Mr. Kemal Gungor: K.Gungor@idi.ie

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Within the scope of the “The Turkey in Horizon 2020 Phase II” Project, “National Advisory Group Meeting on Secure Societies” which aims to strengthen cooperation between national stakeholders and international stakeholders, as well as raising awareness of national stakeholders on secure societies, was held in TÜBİTAK headquarters on 5th March 2020.

The event was organized by TUBITAK in collaboration with Sabanci University EEN Office under the “Turkey in Horizon 2020 Phase II” Technical Assistance Project which is co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey and implemented by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Industry and Technology within the scope of Competitive Sectors of Programme which was focused on preparation of successful H2020 proposal also pointed out success stories from Turkey continued with networking sessions and project presentations.

The participants of this event had a chance to meet partners and possible project proposers, technology providers and requesters. The main goal of the bilateral meetings were to offer matchmaking for research and development projects within the scope of Horizon 2020 Secure Societies Calls.

The event attracted 70 participants ranging from representing a diverse range of business sizes, sectors and public authorities which are in security thematic area.

Towards the end of last year, the European Innovation Council (EIC) launched the Accelerator Pilot Programme under the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument. This replaced the previous Phases 1 and 2 approach and introduced the new concept of ‘blended finance’ – a combination of EC grant with EC and private sector venture capital. We expect that Accelerator will continue in much the same form under the next Framework Programme, Horizon Europe which will commence in January 2021.

The Turkey in Horizon 2020 Phase II project has produced a leaflet giving a basic outline of Accelerator and a 24 page Guide which sets out the objectives, requirements and processes involved in more detail. We believe the Guide is the first publication to draw together detailed information for SMEs interested in applying. The English versions of the Guide and the leaflet may be seen at https://th2020.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009900180-New-publications-on-the-EIC-Accelerator-a-first-for-Turkey- hard copies may be obtained from k.gungor@idi.ie .Versions in Turkish will be available soon.

In line with the Technical Assistance for Turkey in 2020 Phase II, a 2-day focus group training on clustering facilitated projects for new industrial value chains successfully organized in Ankara on 25^th and 26^th February 2020.Within the scope of the Project funded by European Union and Turkish Government, the  event was organized free of charge for the participants currently involve or interested in preparing proposals under the related programme. Trainings began with the information sessions about the Turkish project and Horizon 2020 and followed by sessions which focused on the strategies for approaching consortia and participating in INNOSUP-01 proposals and writing successful proposals in H2020 INNOSUP-01 calls. 50 participants representing a diverse range of business sizes and sectors, ranging from computer software production to biotechnology attended the event.

Check our extensive event material in our Helpdesk.

In line with the Technical Assistance for Turkey in 2020 Phase II, a 2-day focus group training on health, demographic change and wellbeing for the participants who are currently involved or interested in preparing proposal related with this field, was held in Ankara on 20^th and 21^st February 2020. The overall objective for the activity was to strengthen the proposals submitted by Turkish applicants. Trainings began with the introduction to the training and to the H2020 health calls and followed by the evaluation processes and writing successful proposals in H2020 calls. The event which focused on key aspects of proposal preparation, evaluation and sharing in the experience of international experts and other participants draw interest of more than 40 participants representing a diverse range of business sizes and sectors, ranging from computer software production to biotechnology were attended the event.

Visit our Helpdesk page of the event here.

The fourth in a series of 20 National Advisory Group Meetings was successfully staged at the Bogazici University, Istanbul on 18th February. The event attracted more than 150 participants ranging from academia, microbusinesses to larger enterprises, all of which are representing sector of electronic components and systems.

The ECSEL JU – the Public-Private Partnership for Electronic Components and Systems – funds Research, Development and Innovation projects for world-class expertise in these key enabling technologies, essential for Europe’s competitive leadership in the era of the digital economy.

Through the ECSEL JU, the European industry, SMEs and Research and Technology Organisations are supported and co-financed by 30 ECSEL Participating States and the European Union through Horizon2020 budget. ECSEL JU launches an annual Calls for Proposals for research, development and innovation projects.

The event was staged as part of the ‘Turkey in Horizon 2020 Phase II project, which is jointly funded by the Republic of Turkey and the European Union. The aim of the meeting was to better inform stakeholders about new call opened under ECSEL EU Joint Undertaking and to partner Turkish stakeholders with the key players in ECSEL initiative.

The event began with general information sessions about the ECSEL in Turkey. This was followed by information on the current call for proposals given by Yves GIGASE Head of Programmes of ECSEL. Examples of successful projects funded by ECSEL JU were presented by Knut Hufeld, Director Infineon Technologies AG, Dr. Juergen HOLZINGER, Program Manager, AVL LIST GmbH, Francois BRUNIER, Partnership Program Manager, SOITAC, and Erkan ISA, Fraunhofer EMFT.

Finally brokerage event was taken place where representatives of the sector from Turkey could meet ECSEL key players in face-to-face meetings and discuss project proposals and other means of collaboration.

Over 500 stakeholders have participated in the four National Advisory Group Meetings staged since the start of the project in January 2019.

The 5th ISV was dedicated to HEALTH and ICT in HEALTH topic and took place at the Institute of Information Technology (ITI)/CERTH, in Thessaloniki.

The focus of the visit will be in the following calls and topics:

• ICT, Robotics and AI in HEALTH sector
• Digital Transformation in Health and Care
  • Personalised early risk prediction, prevention and intervention based on Artificial Intelligence and Big Data technologies
  • International cooperation in smart living environments for ageing people
  • Accelerating the uptake of computer simulations for testing medicines and medical devices
  • Use of Real-World Data to advance research on the management of complex chronic conditions

A group of 10 participants has been formed, selected by the HEALTH NCP Ozge Gozay and ICT NCP Ezgi Bener. Our aim is to bring together representatives of key institutions and experienced coordinators from major players in Horizon 2020. An open workshop is scheduled for the last day of the visit with participation of stakeholders from Greece: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, VIDADO, Gnomon Informatics, Vilabs, Ortelio etc.

See more on the visit on our Helpdesk Page>

The Limak Hotel in Ankara saw the fifth of 12 Project Writing Training events on 12th February. 56 attendees were drawn from SMEs in the surrounding area, representing a diverse range of business sizes and sectors, ranging from computer software production to biotechnology.
Two days later, Saint Valentine’s Day saw the second event, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Şişli, with a further 50 attendees gathered to hear about the new Accelerator Pilot Programme which has replaced the SME Instrument under Horizon 2020. It is expected that the Pilot will continue under the new Horizon Europe programme due to start in January 2021.
Both events were staged as part of the ‘Turkey in Horizon 2020 Phase II project, which is jointly funded by the Republic of Turkey and the European Union. The aim of the training was to better inform SMEs about the European Commission’s ‘Horizon 2020’ programme which is the main vehicle for funding innovative SME projects to a stage where they may be commercialised. Both events began with general information sessions about the Turkish project and Horizon 2020. This was followed by sessions which focused on the three key areas which project evaluators concentrate on; ‘Excellence’, ‘Impact’ and ‘Implementation’. Both events were highly rated in terms of content and usefulness by the participants.
Over 400 delegates have participated in proposal training and development events held since the start of the project in January 2019.

Details of past and future events and other related activities may be found at: https://th2020.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/360001555713-Training-Networking-Events-Phase-II-

The 4th ISV to Germany covered German institution in 3 cities: Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart and Munich. The visit took place between Jan 27 and 31. The group arrived in Frankfurt and drove to Kaiserslautern in order to visit DFKI on Tuesday Jan 28. On Wednesday, Jan 29, the group traveled to Stuttgart where a visit to Fraunhofer IPA and Hahn-Schickard Institution took place.After Stuttgart the group  transferred to Munich (afternoon of Wed, Jan 29) and they visited Fraunhofer EMFT. The focus of the visit was the H2020 ICT thematic area.

• Innovative factory systems and Industry 4.0
• Energy storage systems
• Smart manufacturing
• Artificial intelligence in automation
• Circuits and Systems, Flex, Microsystems

Our aim was to bring together representatives of key institutions and experienced coordinators from major players in Horizon 2020. The 4 institutions that were visited are some of the most successful organisations in the ICT calls with hundreds of successfully implemented projects.

You can find more on the visit in our Helpdesk page.

You can see photos from the visit in our Google photos Album.

The third in a series of 6 project writing training camps for SMEs was successfully staged at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Şişli, Istanbul on 24^th January. The event attracted 22 participants ranging from microbusinesses to larger enterprises, all of which were in the process of developing proposals for submission to the European Commission.

The event was staged as part of the ‘Turkey in Horizon 2020 Phase II project, which is jointly funded by the Republic of Turkey and the European Union. The aim of the training was to better inform SMEs about the European Commission’s ‘Horizon 2020’ programme which is the main vehicle for funding innovative SME projects to a stage where they may be commercialised. The event began with general information sessions about the Turkish project and Horizon 2020. This was followed by the main training sessions, led by an expert who has many years of experience in writing, presenting and managing EC proposals.

The main sessions used detailed reviews of proposals and detailed analysis of the evaluation process, focusing on the three key areas which project evaluators concentrate on; ‘Excellence’, ‘Impact’ and ‘Implementation’. The event was highly rated in terms of content and usefulness by the participants.

Over 200 SMEs have participated in the three webinars staged since the start of the project in January 2019.

Details of past and future events and other related activities may be found at

You can see photos from the training in our Google photos Album.