TÜBİTAK

TÜBİTAK is the apple of our country's eye.

It was founded in 1963.

It still does not have a serious documentary.

I thought they might film one in 2023 for its 60th anniversary, but we did not see any serious production.

Perhaps they will film it in 2063.

Anyway, that is not our topic.

Our topic is the videos that have been appearing before me regarding TÜBİTAK, which supports scientific research projects.

Some projects that were not supported by TÜBİTAK have been supported by other international institutions.

I do not know if it is true or false.

It is probably false.

Since I have led 4 TÜBİTAK projects so far—back when the FETÖ members had not yet fully infiltrated TÜBİTAK—I became interested in the subject.

After they infiltrated, TÜBİTAK closed its doors to us.

It opened them to the buggers.

While looking into it, I coincidentally found an old letter on my computer.

I wrote it when I was an associate professor.

So, it must be from the 2010s.

It was also sent to TÜBİTAK via fax.

What does the letter say? I am publishing it exactly as it is.

TO THE PRESIDENCY OF TÜBİTAK SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PROJECTS

First of all, I congratulate TÜBİTAK for the support it provides to the Turkish Scientific Community. I conducted a highly satisfying doctoral thesis with the resources of TÜBİTAK.

However, I would like to convey the true story of the process regarding the work I have done in the last two years.

I applied to TÜBİTAK to seek support for a scientific research project I had prepared (which I consider scientific). Following the rejection decision I received after my first application, I revised the project in light of the recommendations and applied again. However, a negative decision was reached again. Then, I applied to the rapid support program twice by scaling down the project even further, but the results were negative. From this, I understood that my project was not sufficient from a scientific perspective. However, I did not lose hope and set out to look for new resources.

I considered European Union funds as a point for seeking new resources. After losing hope in TÜBİTAK, I decided to turn my project into an EU project. Ultimately, as a result of the application I made with a team I formed from European universities, my project was accepted. The grant amount of the EU project is almost 6 times more than what we requested from TÜBİTAK. According to unofficial information we obtained from European sources, the project was deemed worthy of support as the project that received the highest score among 130 projects.

After this short story, I thank TÜBİTAK for not accepting my project. If the project had been accepted, it would have been impossible for it to reach its current state. It could have been lost among shelves and files as a local project. However, thanks to TÜBİTAK not supporting it, the project gained the freedom to become an international project.

The reason for writing this letter is just a small reproach and a huge thank you.

While I am greatly honored to express my gratitude and thanks to TÜBİTAK for the support it has given and will give to the Turkish Scientific Community, I submit the necessity for the peer review and panelist system to be re-evaluated.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gökhan Arslan