Objective

To contribute in producing new technology along with education, training and research activities, encouraging transfer of these produced technologies to society, primarily to our national industry, and in developing national knowledge and technology transfer ecosystem in our Universities;  and

In transforming from technology importing and using structure to a structure having a high competitive power, producing and exporting advanced technology, and effectively collaborating with universities in Industrial Sector.

Targets

• To encourage and support university-industry collaboration activities at universities, research institutions and organizations, industrial organizations and non-governmental organizations and to perform scientific collaboration activities with these institutions and organizations,
• To ensure sharing and extending knowledge and experiences of public and private institutions and organizations in national and international environments,
• To offer support and guidance on diversification of services and improvement of quality in institutionalization processes of university-industry collaboration institutions to be established,  
• To form a service standardization and recognition process for interface institutions operating in Turkey and contribute in quality and performance of these institutions, and
• To contribute in processes of determining policies and strategies and preparing action plans on university-industry collaboration matters before public enterprises. 

Evolution of USIMP’s Mission and Approach

Primary objective of USIMP which has become a significant civil initiative with its 117 corporate members is contributing in the process of constituting a knowledge based economy by having the university-industry collaboration in our country reach to developed countries level; and USIMP’s sole power is its members spread country-wide, who have devoted to this mission and who are expert in their fields. All activities are carried out with great devotion, by material and moral contributions of USIMP members “with the spirit of collective and voluntary work”.

It is observed that our platform, which has been operating since 2007, exhibits an evolution in parallel with the development of our national R&D and Innovation ecosystem, with a structure that can quickly respond to conditions and requirements arising, and by foreseeing needs for many times.

Significant milestones of USIMP’s corporate evolution

• Establishment mission in 2007 was creating an “experiences and good practices pool” by collecting point experiences existing locally under one umbrella.
• “The First National University-Industry Collaboration Congress” held in 2008 was the first activity. They were able to gather about 500 participants with the same excitement and passion from different segments in Adana. It is seen that the public had a lot to say about it. It was necessary to listen to everyone, abstract the ideas, generate new approaches and consequently to constitute models in which richness in our universities create added value to society. USIMP has undertaken this mission in the years of establishment.
• In 2011, 6 Founding members have increased the number of members to 18 by taking 12 more institutions among them. With a strategic decision taken that year, different membership types are formed to extend existing knowledge and richness throughout the country; “awareness and capacity increasing” studies are started nationally. It has organized activities for institutionalization of units intending to increase university-industry collaboration which is being newly established and for improvement of National Ecosystem and involved in others. It had a significant contribution in “Extending IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) Awareness in the Universities of Turkey” projects conducted by EPO and TPE (Turkish Patent Institute).
• When construction of TTOs has become a current issue in 2012, it has started to take a more efficient role in public platform with an expansion in mission. It has brought forward “Technology Transfer Office” model which it has thought as the most adequate model for Turkey, by using knowledge of four years since its establishment and also the international contacts it has made. It has started “policy developing” studies over institutions and organizations as the ministries, TPE and TUBITAK. It has organized nine workshops in total with approximately 700 attendants in 2012-2013, of which four of them were held with the experts it has invited as a result of the cooperation agreement it has concluded with AUTM- Association of University Technology Managers. It has submitted the outputs as a report as a proposal at YÖK (the Council of Higher Education), the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology and TUBITAK.
• Following the support of TTOs in 2013, it has created sub-umbrella constructions as “TTO Network”, “Entrepreneurship Network” and finally “Business Mentorship National Initiative” for experience sharing and for building and expanding “learning together” culture. Specifically after TUBITAK 1513 support, it has started initiatives for trained personnel need which has arisen in institutionalization process of University-Industry Collaboration and organized 15 trainings in cooperation with different national and international stakeholders. Approximately 650 individuals are trained in these trainings.
• As of 2016, “co-production” processes are started to be discussed with the opinion of co-production being an important tool of learning together corporately and individually. Similar to transforming tacit knowledge to corporate knowledge as in businesses, it is aimed to plan service processes for setting up processes of transforming discrete competencies the institutions own at country level to national competencies and leading and evaluating the resource/treasury created by our Members’ knowledge and experience richness for quality oriented capacity increase of our national ecosystem.        
• As of 2017, “service production” studies are initiated with common sense under “benchmarking” and quality assurance for Technology Transfer services for a quality problem arising from rapid growth.  Studies on;
  • Defining Technology Transfer Specialist profession and ensuring its recognition at Vocational Qualifications Authority,
  • Setting up Technology Transfer Specialist (Level 6) training modules,
  • Binding trainings to be given in Turkish at National level with RTTP which is an international recognition certificate of Technology Transfer Specialists,
  • Working on ensuring recognition of technology transfer practices in local ecosystem at international level,
  • Bringing a quality and standard in mentorship services with National mentorship initiative,
  • Performing benchmarking for institutions with online standardized tools as Innovation Scorecard and Situation Analysis and taking service quality under guarantee,
  • Trying to develop standardized processes for intellectual assets to provide local socio-economic contribution by Patent fair event,
  • Developing entrepreneurship ecosystem with local socio-economic focus, and
  • Establishing strategic partnerships and setting up accelerator model where the Industrialists and inventor work together

are initiatives within this scope.

• As of 2018, studies started in 2014 for conducting profession recognition processes at Vocational Qualifications Authority are finalized. Official Definition of Technology Transfer Specialist is officially recognized by the Vocational Qualifications Authority on June 9, 2018 and published in the Official Gazette (OFFICIAL GAZETTE DATE-NO/ 09.06.2018-30446-Repeating). USIMP is still continuing its studies as TTO Specialist Certification organization.

  Within this scope, international recognition of Trainings of Technology Transfer Offices Professionals which were organized since 2012 for meeting needs for “TTO Specialist” trained with adequate qualifications to enable units which are carrying out activities as University-Industry collaboration interface institutions and undertaken Technology Transfer, Licensing and commercialization responsibilities to work efficiently and effectively is provided. By “continuous training scores” to be obtained from USIMP training and activities, Technology Transfer Professional is approved for RTTP certificate which is an international Professional recognition certificate.

  2019 - Innovative Interface Structures (YAY) Platform Project – The Project set up by USIMP and conducted by USIMP Members within the scope of Istanbul Development Agency Innovative Creative Istanbul Financial Support Program, has served for standardization of USIMP’s national Technology Transfer processes, institutionalization of capacity development efforts. Our members, being conducted by Marmara University Innovation and Technology Transfer Application and Research Center (MITTO) which is one of USIMP Members, are supported by partnership and cooperation of Sabancı, Özyeğin, Okan, Istanbul Kültür and Istanbul Arel universities and Istanbul Technopark, University Industry Collaboration Centers Platform (USIMP), Anatolian Side Organized Industrial Zone, SUNUM (Ministry of Development, Advanced Research Infrastructure), VSY Biotechnology and Atabay Ilaç Sanayi R&D Centers. The Project, being constituted of “stakeholders who gathered for the purpose of learning together on voluntary basis” and having adopted the principle of “user oriented capacity development”, shall enable structuring as a sustainable cooperation network and expanding increasingly in the future. 

• In 2020, as the number of interfaces which are the main factor of Knowledge/Technology Transfer Ecosystem has increased, multi-participant, goal oriented workshops, trainings, cooperation meetings, webinars and symposiums have come into prominence within the scope of developing ecosystem capacity with the goal of “Learning Together – Producing Service Together” and more qualified service production studies for regional and corporate needs. In this period when USIMP’s member network has expanded and diversified, relationships with industrial R&D Centers have spread and it is focused on special constructions on reflecting sector needs to interface institutions.