Chemistry R&D Project Market Awards Ceremony Held

Chemistry R&D Project Market Awards Ceremony Held The 11th Chemistry R&D Project Market Awards Ceremony was held on 10 December 2022 at the Foreign Trade Complex, organized by the Istanbul Chemical Substances and Products Exporters Association (İKMİB) and supported by TÜBİTAK, with the approval of the Turkish Ministry of Commerce and Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM). In the competition where 136 projects applied across six project categories, 19 projects were deemed worthy of awards and cash prizes totaling TRY 900,000 were distributed. The Chemistry R&D Project Market event, launched by İKMİB to ensure sustainable exports in the chemical sector, which has risen to leadership in exports, saw its 11th edition this year. The event, which has been held since 2011 and is the largest innovation initiative in the chemical sector, recognized the top three most successful projects in six categories. This year, the first-place winner in each category received TRY 75,000, the second-place winner TRY 50,000 and the third-place winner TRY 25,000. In addition to the competition categories, applications were also accepted from the "Success Stories" category, and four project owners who demonstrated success received commendation certificates. Hosted by İKMİB Board Chairman Adil Pelister, the 11th Chemistry R&D Project Market awards ceremony, held on 10 December 2022 at the Foreign Trade Complex, was attended by R&D Project Market Executive Board Chairman Necmi Sadıkoğlu, İKMİB Board Members, R&D Project Market Executive Board Members, project applicants, academics, industrialists and students.

Adil Pelister: "We have distributed TRY 3.2 million in awards over 11 years"

Speaking at the awards ceremony, İKMİB Board Chairman Adil Pelister emphasized that through this important event, they brought together the academic world, SME enterprises, and project owners with R&D innovation work with investors who want to commercialize projects. Sharing information about the project, Pelister said, "Since 2011, we have received approximately 1,500 project applications and, including this year, we will have distributed a total of TRY 3.2 million in awards. Of the projects submitted to our R&D Project Market event, 34 have been commercialized, and 13 projects are undergoing pilot production with sales discussions ongoing. 10 of the commercialized projects achieved patent success. Projects are evaluated in six categories, and in addition to these, applications are also accepted from the "Success Stories" category. We place special importance on the "Success Stories" category. Based on this importance, we prepared separate promotional films for 18 success stories in 2020 and 10 in 2021. This has enabled us to promote both our chemical sector and the projects that strengthen our sector through many channels," he said.  

Speaking about the importance of technology and change, Pelister continued:

"Technology is developing rapidly and, as a result, fundamental changes are occurring in every field from education to social life and the business world. Every field that can keep pace with these changes will be able to ensure sustainability, while for those that cannot, change will become destructive innovation. That is why, as İKMİB, with keen foresight, we are establishing a 'Start-Up Entrepreneurship' center in our Chemistry Technology Center that we launched. We are aware that the future is arriving very quickly. Rather than just keeping pace with change, we are determined to be the pioneers of change. With this foresight and determination, we will continue to support new project developers in the future as we have done so far. We will complete this year above our export target of 33 billion dollars and, God willing, finish in first place as the sector with the highest sectoral export growth. I extend our gratitude once again to the very valuable industrialists and exporters of our sector who have achieved this success despite the global economic imbalances that emerged following the Russia-Ukraine war and the pandemic. We will collectively achieve our 2030 chemical sector export target of 50 billion dollars, hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder, and will even exceed it significantly."  

R&D Project Market Executive Board Chairman Necmi Sadıkoğlu pointed out that Turkey's chronic problem is selling cheap goods, saying:

"Our kilogram unit prices are around 1.70 dollars. This shows that we are selling goods with a price advantage, that we are not producing quality products. In the first eleven months of this year, we see exports of 231 billion dollars and imports of 331 billion dollars, with a foreign trade deficit of 100 billion dollars. This shows us that we need to reduce the deficit by producing higher value-added goods, and we can only achieve this through competitions like this and university-industry cooperation. This is where the importance of the R&D Project Market emerges. We value the R&D Project Market for this reason and organize it with the aim of producing value-added products. We are holding its 11th edition this year. For example, when we spoke with an award-winning project owner, he said that with the award he received from us last year, he covered his laboratory needs and that most of his requirements are now in place. This is, of course, very encouraging. We have success stories. Many projects came, but some of them have been commercialized. This makes us very happy. We hope that through competitions like this, our sector will gain much more value-added, quality products. Our chemical sector has also become a source of pride for us this year. In 11 months, we had exports of 30.7 billion dollars. We reached first place for the first time. This is a source of pride for us. We hope these types of activities continue. We believe these competitions make huge contributions to the Turkish economy and the chemical sector. If we can increase the export kilogram unit value and value-added to 2.5-3 dollars, Turkey will have no current account deficit."

136 projects applied this year

This year, a total of 136 projects applied across six separate categories: "pharmaceuticals," "medical products," "paints and adhesives," "plastics and rubber," "cosmetics, soap and cleaning products," and "basic chemicals." Following the determination of finalist projects in each category, finalists presented their projects to jury members in morning and afternoon sessions on 10 December 2022. As a result of the evaluation conducted by the jury, category first-place winners received TRY 75,000, second-place winners TRY 50,000, and third-place winners TRY 25,000 in cash awards. A total cash award of TRY 900,000 was given to 19 award-winning project owners. Additionally, projects commercialized within one year will be eligible to receive a special award of TRY 100,000. Thus the total prize money will increase to TRY 1 million.