07 June, 2022

A transnational Erasmus+ STEM Valorise partner meeting took place in the historical and cosmopolitan city of Istanbul, Turkey on the 6th and 7th of June 2022.

The Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence was represented by Dr Niall O’Leary and Dr Sarah Davis. Our colleagues from France, Nina Brankovic and Medisa Focic, and Catherine Hayward from UIIN in the Netherlands joined us there. Host partners from Istanbul Technological University (ITU) welcomed all of the partners warmly and made us feel at home in their ITU Ginova office on the tree-lined Ayazaga campus.

On Monday 6th June, the partners worked together on the proposed training materials that had been gathered by all partners. Each unit was presented and reviewed with improvement suggestions and feedback provided by all partners. However, we agreed that the ‘flow’ of the materials was lacking and noted an over-emphasis on theoretical underpinnings over practical tools to be used by the STEM researchers to valorise their research. Therefore, our second day was devoted to fixing the highlighted issues and we came away from day 2, tired, with much work still to be done but with a clear path and an improved programme.

We will be working hard to make these materials pilot-ready, with plans to recruit PhD students and early stage researchers from all centres and we plan to pilot the STEM Valorise on-line training, with a preliminary start date in October 2022.

As Erasmus+ is about sharing knowledge as well as culture, at the end of the working day we sampled some delicious Turkish Mezze and other local foods and followed a two-hour walking tour of the beautiful city of Istanbul, with a knowledgeable volunteer tour guide from the university.

Thanks to our hosts Dr Zeynep Erden-Bayazit, Şebnem Burnaz and Alper Yurtas and we hope to return your hospitality and welcome you in to the Hincks Centre and to MTU in Ireland.

Further information on the STEM Valorise project is available by clicking here.