Turkey’s advanced R&D inspires tomorrow’s innovations

“One of our principles is to render the state active in the enterprises that are to the general benefit of the nation, especially in the economic field, in order to achieve a prosperous and well-cultivated country.”¹

Those contemporary-sounding words were actually spoken by Mustafa Kemal in 1923, the year Türkiye Cumhuriyeti—the Republic of Turkey—was founded. Better known as Kemal Atatürk and the country’s first president, he introduced a series of five-year industrialization plans in the 1930s.

Those plans evolved in the 1960s into five-year economic development plans that continue to serve as roadmaps for growth today. The current plan spans the years 2019–2023. It addresses a broad portfolio of economic aims, from agricultural production, rural employment, and poverty reduction to encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation, increasing energy efficiency, and employing digital transformation to boost productivity and competitiveness in priority sectors.²

In a 2018 speech that alluded to these priorities,³ President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan identified areas that he sees as key to securing Turkey’s future.

“Our technological depth, which we need in the areas of nanotechnology, materials, aviation, aerospace and defense, is growing with every passing day,” he said. “Initiatives regarding national technology will render it possible for us to grow stronger in economy and world politics.”

Tracking progress through a pandemic

Of course, like every other country, Turkey had no way of knowing that plans launched in 2019 would be sidetracked one year later by the COVID-19 pandemic—or that they would then be subjected to further risks from global inflation and the fallout of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Perhaps in part resulting from these disruptions, there is a shortage of hard data measuring the impact of the current five-year plan on the country’s performance targets.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) published findings of a 2020 Innovation Survey in November 2021.⁴ (The next survey results will be published in November 2023.) According to the report, 67.3% of large companies (250 employees or more) and 38.5% of enterprises with 10 or more employees met the country’s “innovation active” standard during the survey period of 2018–2020. It also notes that 31.9% of companies in that category received public financial support, while 54.8% of those classified as “not innovation active enterprises” cites high costs as “the most hampering factor.”

In July, TURKSTAT published its annual analysis of “central government budget appropriations and outlays on R&D,” which it reported totaled TRY20,249,000,000 for 2021.⁵ That amount in Turkish lira converts to US$1,113,348,742 at the exchange rate on August 27 and, according to the agency, represents 0.28% of Turkey’s Gross Domestic Product for the year. The report notes that this amount is slated to rise to TRY26,307,000,000 (US$1,446,435,150) for 2022, “according to the provisional results based on initial budget appropriations.”

Universities received 48.3% of the total “for general advancement of knowledge,” while industrial production and technology were allocated just 10.3%. “According to the calculations based on the initial budget appropriations, it has estimated that the highest appropriation for R&D will be allocated to universities for general advancement of knowledge with 38.4% in 2022,” the report says, while the share for industrial production and technology will drop to 8.4%.

Officials at Turkey’s Ministry of Industry and Technology declined to respond to repeated requests for an interview or comments in connection with this article.

From campus to global commerce

The distributions of government funding for R&D create an environment in which the private sector must collaborate with universities.

“In Turkey, the universities are fairly flexible in the sense that they promote the faculty members to engage with industrial research,” says Ender Suvacı, founder and chief technology and innovation officer at Entekno Industrial Technological and Nanomaterials Co. (Eskişehir, Turkey). He also serves on the faculty at Eskişehir Technical University.

In an interview with the Bulletin, he explained that when Turkish companies need academic research support, they usually begin by contacting a university’s Technology Transfer Office, which is responsible for matching companies with the right person at the university. Industry can also make direct contact with their preferred researchers, but the Technology Transfer Office usually gets involved regardless. Its role extends to negotiating ownership of technologies or patents that emerge from joint research, the number of days for which faculty members are contracted, and the amount the contracting company will pay for research activities and related expenses.

Intellectual property ownership may be put into a signed agreement at the beginning, but it can be left open at the outset, with the question to be revisited as the project achieves certain milestones.

“The main motivation to do this is not to put IP ownership negotiation in front of the collaboration,” Suvacı says. “They prefer to start, see the potential, and then discuss more.”

In either case, “academic entrepreneurship” is encouraged at Turkey’s universities, and private enterprise depends on academic research labs and facilities for access to equipment and tools and as a means of managing R&D investment expenses.

Connecting the ceramic microdots

Entekno’s portfolio includes inorganic powders, ceramic additives, and cosmetic additives. The business was launched as an outgrowth of research Suvacı conducted for an international company that sought his help developing size and shape controlled electroceramic particles that at the time were not commercially available and had to be produced in a laboratory. After they were developed, his collaboration partner wanted to increase production capacity, and with that decision, Entekno was born in 2008, initially as a university start-up.

The unifying factor in those three product lines is development of novel ceramic particle systems. “Although we say we are in cosmetic and electronic applications, we are developing and manufacturing environmentally friendly and sustainable specialty particulate materials,” Suvacı says. “We are tailoring particle systems, which have unique properties, and they make a significant impact wherever they are used.”

It was while he and his team were investigating novel zinc oxide forms that they realized they were one of the few nano zinc oxide manufacturers in the world.

“While we were working in the area of electroceramics, we wanted to exploit how we could do something different with zinc oxide in a different sector, and we found out that zinc oxide is a great UV filter,” Suvacı says. “With this technology, we were working in the electroceramic area, but we converted our particle synthesis–structure–property understanding to develop the new generation particle technology, which is called MicNo. Today, MicNo-ZnO particles are successfully commercialized in the global cosmetic industry.”

Because MicNo has unique micron sized platelet morphology, it serves the company as a platform technology. Its use expanded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic when Entekno integrated antimicrobial and antiviral actives within the MicNo particles, which are called as MicNo-Hyg. The company then collaborated with sanitaryware manufacturing partners to create ceramic surfaces that exhibited broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. “So far, seven million pieces of ceramic products have been produced by using MicNo-Hyg,” Suvacı says.

He sees Entekno as an innovation company with a global scope. It serves customers on four continents and collaborates with them on research projects supported by a safety level-II microbiology lab and three product application laboratories on cosmetic formulations, hygiene, and piezoelectrics. In addition, the company prioritizes information-sharing that enables customers to easily adapt new technologies within their systems. Funding for projects has come not only from customers but also from the European Union and The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). As an example, Entekno received an EU-funded Eurostar grant for its collaboration with CTS Denmark on “development of new generation lead-free ceramics for consumer electronics.”

Entekno also seeks innovation in its management of human resources. To that end, Suvacı and Entekno’s managing partner Oktay Uysal are developing an Entekno Academy to provide ongoing internal training designed to promote professional development even for the 14% of his employees who hold doctorates. Suvacı mentions, for example, having a professor of microbiology deliver seminars on the biology of microorganisms and viruses to the Entekno team.

The Academy is expected to contribute to achieving business objectives, give existing employees a greater sense of purpose, and aid in attracting new candidates in a market with human capital constraints. Alongside that final point is Suvacı’s goal of increasing the number of women who are hired by Entekno and supported in rising to executive positions at the company.

He also envisions training in methodologies and in developing employees’ English-language skills so they are better equipped to serve global customers. Suvacı has a feeling of personal investment on that count, as he completed his master’s degree and Ph.D. at The Pennsylvania State University, where “I met the wonderful world of ceramic powders. Really, that’s how it started.”

An “affordable luxury” import arrives

In July 2022, news broke that Eczacıbaşı Building Products (İstanbul, Turkey) would be expanding into the U.S. market. The company’s announcement noted that its flagship brand, VitrA, has a 30% share of the market in Turkey but that exports generate most of its revenue.⁶

Although the U.K. and Germany are the company’s two largest export markets, followed closely by France, its fastest-growing markets are China and India. But “you can’t really consider yourself a global player unless you are in the United States,” says Jeremy Cressman, who was named director of the Americas. The expansion plans also target Canada and perhaps Latin America.

In an interview with the Bulletin, Cressman noted that Eczacıbaşı Building Products has been a member of the UN Global Compact since 2006 and that this alignment is core to the brand’s identity in other foreign markets. However, U.S. codes and standards, led by development in California and the Green Building Council, will be the company’s targets to adhere to in this market.

These codes are not expected to introduce significant advances in water reduction. However, Cressman does expect them to make an impact in terms of the manufacturing process, materials used, material transparency, health product declarations, and environmental product declarations.

“Those are the basis for transparency in every aspect of supply chain and product development, from actual raw material extraction to conversion to how a ceramics piece is fired in the kiln and how much energy is consumed in doing that, to packaging, and its full cycle including recyclability, or reuse,” Cressman says.

He also sees an opportunity for product distinction. “We’re entering the markets here with kitchen sinks. And we’re making kitchen sinks with fireclay. So an ancient process at high temperature to make the most durable ceramic piece you can make.” Conversely, the company will not be offering composite sinks because “there is no way to call that a sustainable process.”

The first products are expected to arrive in the U.S. in early November and will feature European styles and designers. Over the long term, Cressman expects that the portfolio will expand to reflect “design influences in the U.S. market, especially the kitchen and bath dealer designs, kitchen designers themselves, bathroom designers, and interior designers,” he says.

“We don’t have direct plans to work with anyone immediately. It is fair to say that it is on our roadmap,” he says.
Looking ahead to 2023, he expects to introduce fireclay shower pans, which have been successful in Europe.

“These are heavy ceramic made at high temperatures, sizes up to 60 inch like an alcove tub, and they are nonslip, they are beautifully formed shape and texture,” Cressman says. “The [U.S.] market tends to sell acrylic bases, or they tend to rely on the tile contractor to do a full waterproofing of a tile floor for the shower. These bases would be labor saving, as well as durable, heavy, and beautiful. It is a new product that would come to the U.S. sometime in late 2023.”

Plans beyond that for next year are “very open at this point” but involve “looking for distribution partners in the affordable luxury area.”

Pursuing multisector glass breakthroughs

Founded in 1935 under Atatürk’s directive, Şişecam Group today has operations in 14 countries on four continents. In emailed responses to Bulletin questions, Glass Technologies Director İlkay Sökmen provided insights into the company’s R&D priorities during the International Year of Glass and an overview of its future objectives and targets.

The company has a nearly half-century history of pioneering what it refers to as a “corporate R&D culture in Turkey.” In 1976, it established one of the country’s first private sector R&D centers, its Glass Research Laboratory in Istanbul. The LEED Gold-certified Şişecam Science, Technology, and Design Center launched in Kocaeli in 2014; the 9,400-square-meter facility houses 27 specialized laboratories staffed by 231 researchers whose areas of focus Sökmen described as “ranging from basic research to laboratory-scale pilot manufacturing trials.”

With consolidated net sales of TRY40.2 billion (US$2.4 billion) in the first half of 2022, the company made a total of TRY2.8 billion (US$168 million) in investments for that period.*

“Şişecam allocates almost one percent of its turnover to R&D activities, carrying out joint projects in close contact and cooperation with numerous universities and research institutions in Turkey and around the globe,” Sökmen wrote. “Şişecam is also engaged in pre-competitive collaboration with institutions and organizations operating in similar sectors, whenever needed.”

How are the company’s investment priorities evolving? Areas of concentration during the past five years include cold repairs, technology harmonization, acquisitions and new investments. Sökmen cited Şişecam’s U.S. soda investment—which she noted is the largest-ever Turkish investment in the U.S.—as well as a Hungarian glass packaging facility (the company’s first such plant in Europe), acquisition of the Italian refractory manufacturer Refel, and, on the domestic side, a further glass packaging investment in Eskişehir.

The company also maintains float lines for architectural and automotive glass investments in Turkey. “With this investment, the current annual flat glass production capacity in Turkey will increase by 30%,” Sökmen stated. In keeping with those projections, the company invested in “a new patterned glass furnace with a capacity of 600 tons per day and processing line with a capacity of 20 million square meters per year.” This investment is designed to capitalize on emerging solar energy opportunities.

She added that as companies must comply with increasingly stringent sustainability regulations, Şişecam invested in Basalia Technology, a Turkish bio-economy invention that “converts all kinds of waste into harmless substances.”

Integrating R&D and sustainability targets

Among studies underway at Şişecam are those focused on “production processes and value-added product development projects, especially for architecture, automotive, and renewable energy sectors, and important practices for efficient use of energy and reducing carbon footprint in all processes up to the end consumer,” Sökmen wrote. These projects keep with the company’s efforts to contribute to global achievement of net zero emissions by 2050.

“With this perspective, one of the most important trends in Şişecam R&D is recycling. Şişecam attaches great importance to all activities related to increasing the use of cullet in glass production. Using 10% glass cullet in production, 2.5% energy saving can be ensured in the production of glass,” Sökmen wrote.

Also in development: novel designs for next-generation glass furnaces to minimize and eventually phase out the use of fossil fuels. This work is in the study phase, with teams dedicated to such areas of investigation as integrated furnace models, improvement of heat transfer efficiency, new refractory materials, and new glass melting and production technologies. The company also introduced product innovations such as next-generation glass fiber products for wind turbine blade manufacturers that are made using advanced fiber production technology and reinforced with nanomaterials.

The COVID-19 pandemic inspired the invention of “a special coating that neutralizes viruses and bacteria on glass surfaces,” Sökmen wrote. “Patented Antimicrobial V-Block Technology, developed by Şişecam, aims to prevent the spread and reproduction of viruses and bacteria that can be transmitted by person-to-person contact on glassware.”

In 2021, Şişecam collaborated with 45 Turkish and 39 international universities, research institutions, and private sector R&D units. It sees Ph.D. programs as essential to providing qualified researchers for ongoing projects. Sökmen noted that as a result of the company’s collaborations with seven universities, “we have nine projects, which will result in the employment of 23 doctorates.”

This year, Şişecam’s 37^th annual International Glass Conference has the theme “Inspiration for Tomorrow: Celebrating International Year of Glass.” It will be conducted in a hybrid format November 17–18, with onsite activities held in Istanbul.

“Inspiration for Tomorrow” could also be Turkey’s national economic development slogan. The country envisions a future born of “innovation active” entrepreneurship and technological advances—but it must navigate today’s economic uncertainties and supply chain challenges to get there.

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