R&D base for high technologies

The defense industry is positioned among the priority sectors all over the world. Significant investments are also made in the defense industry in Turkey. Significant progress has been made with the national technologies developed in this field and it has an important position in global competition. Teknopark İstanbul General Manager Bilal Topçu said that: “Our domestic rates have reached 70% from 20%. There are 7 Turkish companies in the DefenseNews Top 100, which is considered the most prestigious defense industry list in the world: Aselsan, TUSAŞ, BMC, Roketsan, STM, FNSS and Havelsan. Turkey made an export of 2.2 billion USD in this field in 2020.” Expressing his expectation that the numbers will increase with the breakthroughs to be made in 2021, Bilal Topçu stated that the defense industry is not just about land defense systems. There is a huge structure that includes sectors such as aviation and space, cyber security, and maritime. Emphasizing that Turkey focuses on the R&D studies of domestic and national technologies by providing development in all of these areas, Bilal Topçu noted the following regarding the role and goals undertaken by Teknopark İstanbul in these studies:

“We currently host 349 companies and over 100 startups. In these companies, 6 thousand 794 qualified R&D engineers who will shape the future of our country are working on 2 thousand 194 domestic and national projects. We also stand out with the support we give to the leading R&D projects of the defense industry such as the MİLGEM Corvette, Altay Tank, Anka UAV, LHD Amphibious Assault Ship and Oruç Reis. We support sectoral clusters, especially SAHA İstanbul. Our motivation to be a critical base in the defense industry enables us to carefully evaluate every work we do, down to the smallest detail. At this point, the services we provide to companies are also critical. Companies located in Teknopark İstanbul have the potential to continue their business in terms of affordable rental costs, wide infrastructure opportunities and location. In addition to many large companies in our defense industry, subcontractors that develop by-products for the defense industry are also located on the campus. We attach importance to public-industry and academia cooperation projects. Our Technology Transfer Office offers all the support it can for the intellectual property rights of the projects. Teknopark İstanbul carries out high technology developments. These technologies require special technical infrastructures, laboratories and clean rooms, unlike studies that are realized only with a computer and internet infrastructure. We meet all these special requests. This is effecting companies choosing us for their R&D studies.

In addition to being a critical R&D base for high technologies, we act directly as an important part of the Turkish defense industry, especially due to our partnership with Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB). The projects developed at Teknopark İstanbul play an important role in achieving the targets of nationalization in our defense industry. Our main contractor and subcontractor defense industry companies such as Aselsan, TUSAŞ, TEI, Roketsan, STM, BMC, Aspilsan, Yaltes, C-Tech, Altınay Aviation, Pavotek, Femsan, Armelsan, Figes realize their projects by making use of the technical infrastructures offered by our R&D studies, by using the advantages of our location, and by taking advantage of the supports we offer. By bringing our entrepreneurs together with different supports, we enable them to be a part of the ecosystem.”