The CFCU, the Turkish Central Finance and Contracts Unit (www.cfcu.gov.tr), has awarded a prestigious 18-month contract to Bilkent as a partner institution in a consortium with the Netherlands and Romania. Business Information Management (BIM) and Faculty of Business Administration (FBA) Faculty members spent last summer writing proposals with the full backing of their Deans and Department Chairs. Every EU project requires an acronym and TEPEK will be used, standing for "Turkey and its Participation in the European Knowledge Economy." Lobbying assured that Bilkent would be represented by agreeing to co-operate with both Ankara and Koç Universities, with the idea that that cross-faculty and cross-university networking brings more success.
The aim of this social sciences and humanities EU project is to draft Turkey's Knowledge Capital Manual. It will involve four Bilkent researchers: Professor Fatin Sezgin; Vice Department Chair Arzu Sibel İkinci; Instructor Ayşegül Altaban and Klaus Jurgens from FBA as co-ordinator. Four pilot training seminars will be held, two of them in Turkey. Students will have the chance to actively participate in the work. Part of the project is trying to establish new permanent consortia linking Turkish chambers such as Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) or İstanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) with business associations and universities regarding knowledge management and Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) professionalization. As Bilkent is still the only Turkish university where a full-fledged SME elective course is being taught, the team considers winning the tender as to be reasonably justified.
They have also been offered to open an individual EU Project Office on East Campus. The funding for the entire project exceeds 400,000 EURO. There will be an Office Opening Reception soon.
There will be two Bilkent seminars - on "EU Project Cycle Management" and "How to obtain EU Funding" - before the end of this year. The official consortia kick-off meeting takes place on September 15 and 16 here in Ankara. All students are actively encouraged to seek out news as and when it becomes available.
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