The “1702 Patent-Based Technology Transfer Support Program”, which was first issued by TUBITAK in 2020, has been a very visionary and appropriate support program. With this support program, TÜBİTAK covers the license fee of up to 75 percent when companies license or take over the patents of universities and start-ups.

In our country, there have been very good developments in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem for the last 10 years. However, let’s underline that we are not at the point where we should be, and that we will not be able to reach that point in a short time. In the 1990s, the issue we discussed as a country was why companies could not do R&D. Along with this discussion, since 1995, KOSGEB and TEYDEB have developed different R&D project support mechanisms and encouraged many companies throughout the country to do R&D. Therefore, if our companies can do R&D today, they owe it to KOSGEB and TUBITAK-Teydeb. In other words, our R&D capability has been developed by forcing from the outside rather than from the inside of the companies. When we look at the R&D project applications of TÜBİTAK and KOSGEB today, we see that many of our companies can develop R&D projects.

In the 2000s, the most discussed topic in the country was patents, going one step further than R&D. We were all comparing our number of the patents with other countries and complaining why our numbers were so few. In particular, we started to criticize universities on this issue. Why aren’t there enough patents coming out of so much research?

In 2013, TTOs started to be established by TUBITAK, and immediately after that, the Innovative and Entrepreneurial University Index entered our lives. By forcing (or encouraging) universities (lecturers) through both TTOs and index, research results were started to be patented. The same enforcement and encouragement has been made to Technoparks and R&D Centers, and it continues today. I think we owe it to TTOs to get so many patents into our lives. The point we have reached is not negligible at all. Our universities are in an incredible competition for patent applications. And Technoparks are also not lagging behind universities. The private sector is also keeping pace with this. Today, none of us discuss the number of patents anymore.

So, what caused the increase? Of course, it was the direction of the mechanisms and the policies of the public. If TTOs were not established and/or if there was no University index, it was not possible for our patent number to reach these levels. So, what is at the top of the issues discussed in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem these days? We are discussing issues such as why we have received so many patents, their patent maintenance fees are being burdened by institutions (universities, companies, etc.) and how we can commercialize them. As before, the shortest way to solve this issue quickly in our country will be the support and incentives of the public to commercialize patents. In doing so, first of all, the fact that the patent is a direct performance indicator should be eliminated and replaced with an indicator of how much total patents are commercialized. Thus, the focus of the supply side will shift to commercialization rather than the number of patents. This has been observed slightly in the last couple of years. In my opinion, in the commercialization of patents, it is necessary to encourage and motivate the demand side instead of the supply side. Naturally, the private sector is hesitant to invest in technologies with a low level of technology preparation (high economic risk). Therefore, companies need motivation and risk sharing to license these patents.

The “1702 Patent-Based Technology Transfer Support Program” published by TÜBİTAK for the first time in 2020 has been a very visionary and appropriate support program for me. With this support program, TUBITAK covers 75% of the license fee when it purchases or takes over the patents of universities and start-ups. Therefore, this support program supports both the investor side (the buyer), and the supply side (universities and startups) by significantly reducing the risk of the industrialist.

In my opinion, it’s time to substantially revise public support for R&D and innovation, and turn it into supports that help commercialize outputs rather than just patent-generating supports. The 1702 Patent-Based Technology Transfer Support program is the first example, but the number of similar support programs should be increased and their content should be expanded. If the mentioned support programs diversify and increase, the issues we will discuss over the next 10 years; how many patents have been commercialized or how much revenue has been generated from the commercialized patents. The faster we get here, the more we contribute to the development of the country’s economy. For this, it is beneficial that the Public should diversify its programs that will directly or indirectly support the commercialization of especially university patents.