SESRIC has co-organized with the National Nanotechnology Research Center (UNAM) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) the 2nd International Workshop on Cleanroom Training for Critical and Sustainable Technologies programme on 25 June – 8 July 2012 in Ankara, Turkey. The workshop has been supported by Turkish Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology (MoSIT), Turkish International Cooperation & Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the Turkish Ministry of Development.

The immediate objective of the workshop has been to expose and advance the knowledge and understanding of the participants in nanotechnology application areas. The participants have been trained on the fundamentals of cleanroom use and safety; micro/nano-scale process design and optimization; project and process specific equipment training.

The workshop has commenced with the opening speeches of UNAM, Bilkent University, MoSIT, TIKA, SESRIC and UNIDO representatives. SESRIC has been represented by Mr. Hüseyin Hakan Eryetli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department, on behalf of Dr. Savas Alpay, Director General of SESRIC. During his speech, Mr. Eryetli has touched upon the fact that high-technology exports (HTE) are very low in the OIC member countries. In 2010, OIC as a group, exported $73 billion worth of high technology products, which constituted 4.2% of the world HTE of $1.7 trillion. 81% of the total HTE is undertaken by Malaysia with an annual volume of more than $59 billion. This low rate of HTE is mainly stemming from limited financial resources allocated to R&D. Expending $25.8 billion, the OIC member countries account for only 2.1% of the world total gross expenditures on R&D (GERD) of $1.22 trillion. The situation does not alter much even if the demographical perspective is considered. For OIC, the average R&D expenditures per capita, is $28, which is well below the world average of $219 and the EU average of $601. Mr. Eryetli also underlined that, having adequate number of highly qualified human resources is another crucial factor to foster innovation and promote the scientific and technological development of a country. In the world, there are 1507 researchers per million people whereas OIC average is even less than one third of this number. Last but not least, the main direct outputs for measuring scientific performance of a country are publications and patents. In 2011, OIC member countries published 84.6 thousand articles in indexed journals. Promisingly, this corresponds to a more than fourfold increase compared to 20 thousand articles they published in 2000. However, it is still less than the total number of articles of a single country: Germany (86 thousand) which holds the third position after USA (324 thousand) and China (155 thousand).

Given the current state of OIC member countries, Mr. Eryetli has mentioned SESRIC’s priority to invest in the human capital through initiating, implementing and supporting capacity-building programs and facilitating technical training projects and courses in order to transfer knowledge and expertise from one country to another.

The first week of the workshop has mainly focused on lectures and seminars on cleanroom-based micro/nano-fabrication and LoC technology delivered by a number of academicians and scholars. Apart from technical issues, the first week of this challenging workshop has been liven up by Istanbul excursion & technical cleanroom facility visit and international workshop football tournament. On the second week of the workshop, hands-on laboratory practice has been conducted by four working groups in UNAM Cleanroom Facility.

The workshop which has brought together in total 40 participants out of these, 30 are from developing countries and transition economies, has opened a way for collaboration and cooperation between all the attendees and provided them with highly valuable technical knowledge.

Documents

• Detailed Programme (English)
• Poster (English)

Photos