Özyeğin University, Çekmeköy Campus Nişantepe District, Orman Street, 34794 Çekmeköy - İSTANBUL

Phone : +90 (216) 564 90 00

Fax : +90 (216) 564 99 99

E-mail: info@ozyegin.edu.tr

Jan 02, 2019 - Mar 01, 2019

CEEE Funded by Islamic Development Bank for its NEXT-GEN Project

Islamic Development Bank’s (IsDB) long-term strategy is centered on supporting science, technology and innovation.  To fulfill this commitment, in April 2018, the IsDB launched Transform, a $500 million fund for capacity building and facilitating the commercialization of technology within the member states. Closely aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Transform Fund will focus on accelerating progress towards achieving greater food security, healthier lives, inclusive and equitable education, sustainable water management and sanitation, access to affordable, clean energy, and sustainable industrialization across the developing world.    

To this end, the first call was launched in April 2018 under 4 categories, receiving 1,500 applications from all around the world.  Following the eliminations, 32 projects qualified for seed funding in the first phase.   The distribution of the projects across the categories were as follows: 11 in New Ideas with Proof of Concept, 9 in Scaling up of Innovative Projects, 4 in Commercialization of Technology, and 8 in Capacity Building in Science, Technology and Innovation.   Tulpar R&D Co. and the CEEE at Özyeğin University were the two finalists from Turkey that qualified for funding with their BUYON and NEXT-GEN projects in the Scaling Up of Innovative Projects, and Capacity Building in Science, Technology, and Innovation categories, respectively.

The NEXT-GEN project was launched with the vision of educating the future local leaders of energy efficiency. The project entails  conducting studies in pilot vocational and technical schools and municipalities in 10 cities in the Southeast Anatolia (Adıyaman, Batman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Mardin, Siirt, Şanlıurfa and Şırnak)  in coordination with the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Energy.  Experiences gained in the project will be culminated into energy efficiency road maps for countries in collaboration with decision makers from Tunisia, Mauritania, and Niger.

The Transformers Summit, which took place in Cambridge, the UK, on December 10, 2018, is the only conference connecting a powerful coalition of entrepreneurs, innovators and global leaders to discuss the role of science, innovation and technology in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.  The summit provided valuable insights about Impact Investment, which will be the investment model of the future, while also launching a new call to support 20 projects through crowdfunding in the second phase.

On behalf of the CEEE, the project is managed by Yasemin Somuncu, MS in Architecture, who has been working as a senior researcher at the CEEE since March 2012.  To date, she has coordinated the New Energy Efficient Demonstration for Buildings  (NEED4B), Total Renovation Strategies for Energy Reduction in Public Building Stock (BRICKER), and NEXT-GEN projects.  She has co-authored and published numerous articles and conference proceedings in collaboration with Prof. M. Pınar Mengüç.

Transformers Academy.  Dr. Hayat Sindi, Dr. Fil Randazzo, Vladimir Yossifov, mentors, and 32 Transformers. 

December 7, 2018, Cambridge, the UK.

Transformers Summit.  His Excellency Dr. Bandar Hajjar, Dr. Hayat Sindi, and 32 Transformers.

December 10, 2018, Cambridge, the UK.

Transformers Summit. (From left to right) Yasemin Somuncu, MS in Architecture, Mr. Mehmet Şimşek, Dr. Masoud Latifinavid, and Dr. Matin Ghaziani. 

December 10, 2018, Cambridge, the UK.