The 92nd Executive Board Meeting and 26th Regional Contact Point Meeting of the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations (WAITRO), which positions itself as a Global Innovation Family, was hosted by TÜBİTAK in Gebze.
Representatives from China, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Jordan, South Africa, Spain, Thailand and Trinidad and Tobago came together at the TUBITAK Gebze Campus under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal, President of WAITRO and TÜBİTAK.
Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal, President of the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations, said that they came together at the 92nd Meeting of WAITRO to create common solutions to global problems. Emphasizing that the common agenda of the countries is green and digital transformation, Mandal stated that at this point, they want to produce common solutions with science and technology against the economic difficulties brought about by the food, energy and water supply security, migration and a more difficult world to live in the future.
Stating that they are not only a policy-making but also a research-oriented structure, Mandal said: "WAITRO consists of representatives from 5 regions: Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Europe. WAITRO is an association that brings all regions together and mobilizes the means to find solutions to our common problems today and in the future with science and technology."
Stating that they will organize the WAITRO 2024 Summit in China, Mandal said: "WAITRO's world summit is held every 2 years in order to establish cooperation and realize joint projects between countries and institutions in need and institutions that can create solutions to this problem, especially in areas such as food, energy and water depending on the climate. In 2024, this summit will be held in China. At this meeting, we also talked about its preparations."
Mandal said that during their presidency, they tried to create an agenda to act more actively and quickly against rapidly developing problems, and added: "Especially during our presidency, we are working with all regional representatives and contact points in more active and more cooperative cooperation. We are trying to prioritize not only organizing conferences, but also raising young human resources and including them in the process at the point of finding quick solutions with joint projects. In order to make the structure of WAITRO more functional, we will maintain the current association structure, while at the same time we will discuss the legal identity of WAITRO in order to realize some processes faster. Türkiye took over the presidency not only because it was its turn, but by being elected by majority vote. Our aim in the presidency process is to turn WAITRO into a more active and agenda-setting structure."
"The most productive Board meeting"
During the two-day meetings, the activities carried out within the scope of WAITRO in 2023 were evaluated and the targets for 2024 were set.
During the Executive Board and Regional Contact Point meetings, WAITRO Board members and regional contact points evaluated the main programs and activities in the WAITRO Ecosystem, such as WAITRO Capacity Building Program, Entrepreneurship Event Series, Benchmarking Program, Fellowship Program, SAIRA, and set new value-added activity targets for 2024 to carry these programs further.
In this context, as one of the most active members of the WAITRO Global Innovation Family, it was also agreed to organize an event plan for 2024 to expand the impact of the global research and innovation ecosystem, to introduce WAITRO activities and opportunities to students, as well as meetings to evaluate the work done under the WAITRO Capacity Building Program, and events where the results of the WAITRO Benchmarking Project, which was initiated to identify best practices that will improve the work of WAITRO member research and technology organizations to higher performance, will be shared with participating organizations.
At the end of 2023 and in 2024, plans were made to realize a more synergic work between the members of the Executive Board and the Regional Contact Points, and discussions were held on what needs to be done to address the Sustainable Development Goals comprehensively, to ensure more effective contribution and participation, and to be applicable to all regions.
Problems experienced are taken in hand within the scope of the Sustainable Development Goals were expressed and the possible actions to be taken to eliminate these problems were discussed. At the end of the meeting, WAITRO Board members and Regional Contact Points shared the results of the two-day meetings in a joint session and an action list was determined to further increase the value and visibility of WAITRO.
It was noted that the 92nd WAITRO Board Meeting chaired by Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal was the most productive meeting to date.
UN Technology Bank Visit
Within the scope of the meeting, the delegation also visited the United Nations Technology Bank, which was established in TÜBİTAK Gebze campus to serve the Least Developed Countries.
During the visit, Dr. Taffare Tesfachew, Director of the United Nations Technology Bank (UNTB), made a presentation on the projects carried out jointly by TÜBİTAK and UNTB. Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal, as the President of WAITRO, introduced the organization and provided information about its activities. During the meeting, ideas were exchanged on projects that WAITRO and UNTB can realize together.
09.01.2024