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.

The third in a series of 6 training events for Information Multipliers was successfully staged at the Limak Ambassadore Hotel in Ankara on 21^st and 22^nd January. The event attracted 85 participants (Information Multipliers) covering the entire innovation ecosystem of Turkey.

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 introduce participants in the principles of Horizon 2020 Project Management. The event began with general information sessions about the “Turkey in Horizon 2020 Phase II project” and the Information Multipliers System platform. This was followed by the main training sessions, led by experts who have many years of experience in designing and managing EC proposals. At the last session of the event covered topics related to the specificities of the Turkish legal and regulatory framework in the context of Horizon 2020.

The main sessions covered a broad range of topics related to the full life cycle of a Horizon 2020 project from idea inception to project closure, offering a balanced mix of theoretical background knowledge and practical examples of real project cases.

The next training event for Information Multipliers is planned to cover topics related to evaluation of H2020 proposals and networking.

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.

The third International Study Visit was organised in Vienna for 3 days between Dec 10 – 12. Representatives from important academic institutions like the Social Sciences University of Ankara (ASBU), Koc University (KU), Ankara University AU), Bilkent University (BU), Yildiz Teknik University (YTU) and TUBITAK, visited Vienna and had constructive talks and meetings with ZSI, Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), Austrian Science Fund (FWF), University of Vienna (UniVie) and Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

The focus of the visit was on the H2020 Social Sciences & Humanities thematic area including “Science with and for Society” (SWAFS) and more specifically the following call topics:

• MIGRATION-04-2020: Inclusive and innovative practices for the integration of recently arrived migrants in local communities
• MIGRATION-05-2018-2020: Mapping and overcoming integration challenges for migrant children
• MIGRATION-09-2020: Narratives on migration and its impact: past and present
• MIGRATION-10-2020: Sustainable practices for the integration of newly arrived migrants into societies
• TRANSFORMATIONS-15-2020: Society and innovations: understanding the contexts, processes and consequences
• TRANSFORMATIONS-18-2020: Technological transformations, skills and globalization – future challenges for shared prosperity
• SwafS-09-2020: Supporting research organisations to implement gender equality plans
• SwafS-14-2020: Supporting the development of territorial Responsible Research and Innovation
• SwafS-19-2020: Taking stock and re-examining the role of science communication
• SwafS-23-2020: Grounding RRI in society with a focus on citizen science
• SwafS-26-2020: Innovators of the future: bridging the gender gap

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

You can also see photos of the event in our Google Photos Album.

In partnership with ICARDA (International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas), PRIMA is organising training to increase the capacity of potential participants from non-EU PRIMA PS to improve the participation and success rate of these countries within the programme. It was decided that PRIMA training programmes shall be implemented in the non-EU PRIMA Participating States (PS). The first training has been conducted in Egypt on 7-8 October 2019, and the model implemented is foreseen to be replicated in other non-EU PS. Training in Turkey was organized on 12-13 December 2019. PRIMA Secretariat and ICARDA selected trainers. PRIMA Secretariat covered the flight and accommodation expenses of all trainers. The 6th Focused Group Training covered key issues in the full proposal development cycle in PRIMA Programme calls, starting from introduction to the open call topics, familiarisation with key documents.

The third in a series of 9 webinars for SMEs was successfully transmitted at 10:00 on 10^th December 2019. The 2-hour event attracted 60 participants from a variety of companies and institutions.

The webinar 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 focus of this webinar was on the need to develop viable and convincing business plans for inclusion in proposals submitted for funding. The need for sound business plans is even greater following the introduction of the Accelerator Pilot Programme as a lead-in to the Horizon Europe Framework Programme which will commence in January 2021.

Over 220 SMEs have participated in the three webinars which have been broadcast since the start of the project in January 2019, with an average of 40 topic-related questions being raised online after each transmission.

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

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

The 3rd Advisory Group Meeting was dedicated to coordination and synergies between 12 projects funded under IPA Programme in Turkey and Turkey in Horizon2020 TA Project. The meeting aims to network End Recipients of Assistance (ERA) and stimulate cooperation and coordination of activities and search for potential synergies between the projects. The principal aim of the meeting was to create a platform for exchanging views on how ERA organizations are planning to implement the projects and identify common interests and opportunities for collaboration. In that context important objective is to raise the interest of final beneficiaries (research, business support organizations and companies) in participation in EU Framework Programmes: Horizon2020 and future Horizon Europe.