President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the 100th Year TUBITAK and TUBA Science Awards Ceremony.
Erdoğan laid out the following statements in his speech:
"The brightness of the Century of Türkiye warms the hearts of the oppressed and downtrodden from Palestine to Turkistan, from Africa to the Balkans, with 85 million of our citizens. We are talking about a Türkiye reality that is not only influential in its immediate vicinity but has become a significant player in a vast geography, with its increasing population, policies, and influential stance being closely watched.
With its economy, trade, technology, defense industry, military power, and successes in education and health, our country is transitioning from being a regional player to becoming a global actor. The dream of a Türkiye that is the protector of the unprotected has, fortunately, materialized in flesh and bone by the end of the century. I have no doubt that this century, with Allah's permission, will be the century of our nation and our state.
Here, I would like to underline one point: we have never pursued short-term goals; we are not pursuing them. We are concerned with shaping the future, not just getting through the day. We are working to turn the vision of a Great and Powerful Türkiye into reality. With this understanding, starting from 2002, we attached special importance to developing the science, industry, technology, and innovation ecosystem in our country. We worked to address human resources and infrastructure deficiencies from the outset.
We increased the number of our universities, which are centers of scientific studies, from 76 to 208. What did they say? What's the point of having 208 universities? Pay attention; with 76 universities, my country had them in some parts. But with 208 universities, we have universities in all 81 provinces. There is no province without our university now. Where would the university in Şırnak go? But now, my professors go to the university in Şırnak, providing education to the children there. The top students are also emerging from there. The key is to capture this horizon.
We increased the number of our professors, associate professors, and doctoral faculty accordingly. We built a strong, dynamic, and productive research and development and entrepreneurial ecosystem not only in specific cities but in all our geographical regions. We increased the number of research and development centers we started from scratch to 1,295, and the number of design centers, which were initially zero, to 329. The number of our TECHNOPARKs has increased from 2 to 101. To increase awareness of technology, we established 125 Do it Yourself (DIY) technology workshops in all 81 provinces.
We sent 12,000 students abroad on scholarships for postgraduate education to encourage specialization. The research project competitions we organized prepared our children for the future with national and international science olympiads. The world's largest aerospace and technology festival, TEKNOFEST, has led to an awakening across our country in this field. TEKNOFEST has not only been a technology festival but has instilled self-confidence in the youth of this country and shown that no one can stand in the way of their dreams. This year, within the scope of TEKNOFEST, we included 3 students selected in the competitions in the Antarctic scientific expedition.
Supporting our national research institution TUBITAK, which has been guiding science and technology for 60 years, we strengthened it even more in every field. Under the TUBİTAK Academic Research and Development Support programs, we supported a total of 31,000 projects. We used more than 68 billion liras in resources for these.
Through the scientist support program, we provided support totaling 17.8 billion liras to 270,000 scientists. To popularize the culture of science in society, we have supported a total of 47,000 projects with a budget of 4 billion liras since 2007. We have supported TÜBA, which we closely and appreciatively follow in its efforts to spread our scientific and cultural heritage. With these critical steps we have taken in various fields, we have, thankfully, brought Türkiye to a very different point in scientific research compared to 21 years ago.
Belief is described as half of success. There can be no talk of success where there is no belief. I especially want to emphasize that we see the achievements of our scientists, whom we will present awards to today, as a triumph of belief and perseverance. Each of you believed, worked hard, made sacrifices, worked, and ultimately made groundbreaking scientific contributions in your field.
We, as the state, have endeavored to support you in this challenging process. In the future, we will continue to offer contributions and mobilize our resources for you. As long as you work for Türkiye, for the Century of Türkiye, and for all of humanity, rest assured that we will support scientists like you. With your efforts, knowledge, skills, and the products you will produce, we will undoubtedly move towards our goals more confidently.
I want to draw your attention to one point here: Any struggle with a missing intellectual and scientific dimension is doomed to remain incomplete. If we are aiming for a Türkiye that is politically, economically, diplomatically, and militarily fully independent, we must also aim for the top in science, technology, innovation, and scientific research.
For this, we need the support and contribution of all our trained human resources, both domestically and abroad. It is very important for our scientists who have conducted some of their academic and scientific studies abroad, gained knowledge and experience there, to return to our country and support Türkiye's development efforts.
Our state is with all scientists who want to repay their debt of gratitude to the nation they belong to. It will always be by their side. For this purpose, we have initiated the International Leaders and Young Researchers program, which fulfills this mission properly. Within the scope of the program, 199 leading scientists have come to our country so far. In the projects of our leading researchers, a total of 1,256 students and researchers, including 408 doctoral students, have participated.
We also support 81 researchers with the National Leading Researchers Program and the National Young Leaders Program. In these projects, 446 scholarship holders, mostly doctoral students, participate. Our pioneering R&D laboratories, whose numbers are increasing, play an important role in reverse brain drain."
