The Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology of Republic of Turkey has been designated as the leader Ministry for “Competitiveness and Innovation” sector within Regional Development Policy Area during 2014-2020 Programming Period. In this framework, in line with priorities set in the Indicative Strategy Document, “The Competitiveness and Innovation Sector Operational Programme” covering 2014-2020 programming period has been prepared by the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology. EU contribution of 344 million Euro for the 2014-2020 period is foreseen to be allocated to the Programme. With the national contribution, total budget of the new Programme has been set as 405 million Euro.

 

The sector approach is an approach which is predicted to be implemented during 2014-2020 period by the European Commission with the aim of raising efficiency and productivity of financial contribution provided by the IPA, strengthening ownership at the national level and increasing the harmony among national policy, sectoral policy, government spending and attaining results. The Commission, during the studies carried out at candidate countries, found out that while EU funds had been used in line with the national priorities for some sectors, for other ones, the funds had been used within the limited extent foreseen by the Programme. Accordingly, EU funds have not been used adequately by candidate country and have not been executed in a coordinated way with national strategy policies. The Commission has been adopted a policy which stipulates that Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance provided to candidate countries by the EU will be in harmony with current policy areas of fund receiving country for 2014-2020 period.  Within the framework of the Competitiveness and Innovation Sector Operational Programme, along with investment supports to “Competitiveness and Innovation” sector, capacity building support pertaining to “Enterprise and Industrial Policy” and “Science and Research” chapters will also be provided to related institutions.

 

The Programme will be executed within the framework of principals for sector approach set by the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR). Within the scope of sector approach, it is foreseen that support would be given to the financing of national sector strategies by the EU with the aim of making contribution to the targets set by the national policies and strategies.

 

The Competitiveness and Innovation Sector Operational Programme involves 3 Actions and 6 Activities. Furthermore, the geographical coverage of Regional Competitiveness Operational Programme (previous programme) which was limited with 43 provinces of Turkey is re-designed as covering 81 provinces, i.e. whole country. 

 

The Sector Operational Programme involves following points:

• Current situation analysis for sector

• Evaluation of preparedness of the Competitiveness and Innovation Sector to “sector approach”

• Targets of the IPA sector support

• Geographical and thematic concentration strategy of the Programme

• Actions and sub-activities supported within the framework of the Programme

• Financial tables

• Consultation process

• Implementation regulations

 

Actions and activities of the Competitiveness and Innovation Operational Programme are as follows:

Action 1. Private Sector Development

Activity 1.1. Manufacturing Industry

Activity 1.2. Services & Creative Industries

Action 2. Science, Technology and Innovation

Activity 2.1. Research and Development

Activity 2.2. Technology Transfer and Commercialization

Action 3. Capacity Building

Activity 3.1. Technical Assistance for System Operators and Publicity of the CISOP

Activity 3.2. Acquis and Sector Approach related Institution Building Activities

 

The supports which would be provided under the abovementioned actions and activities are as follows:

 

Under Action 1, support will be provided in the areas of developing industrial infrastructure, supporting SMEs, clustering, networking and increasing competitiveness of SMEs at global markets, supporting and developing infrastructure of service sector and creative industries, improving tourism services, supporting SMEs’ access to finance and diversification of financial products.

  

Under Action 2, support will be provided in the areas of improving research capacity, improving R&D and innovation infrastructure, commercialization of R&D and innovation, promoting technology transfer, supporting social innovation, promoting university-industry collaboration.

 

Under Action 3, support will be provided for capacity building activities for Competitiveness Sectors Operating Structure as well as for Chapter 20 - “Enterprise and Industrial Policy” and Chapter 25 - “Science and Research” related to alignment with the acquis which had been executed by the Ministry for EU Affairs during IPA I period.

 

The complete document of the Competitiveness and Innovation Operation Programme can be reached at www.ipa.sanayi.gov.tr