ANKARA, Jan 16 (A.A) - Turkish and Greek scientists have prepared 79 joint research and development projects.
Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Deputy Chairman Prof. Tugrul Tankut told A.A correspondent on Wednesday that TUBITAK and Greek Ministry of Development General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT) had signed ''Scientific Cooperation Protocol''.
Pointing out that joint research and development projects between scientists of the two countries were supported in accordance with the protocol, Tankut said that the cost of the projects would be met by the two countries equally.
Stating that scientists should get approval by giving their projects to the scientific organizations in their countries, Tankut said that the announcement for the project applications was made in October 2001 in accordance with the protocol and that 79 projects, jointly prepared by Turkish and Greek scientists, had been presented to TUBITAK within two months.
Prof. Tankut said that Greek scientists had also presented the same projects to the concerned organizations in their countries.
A total of 2.5 million U.S. dollars was requested from TUBITAK for the projects on informatics, medicine, agriculture, health, basic sciences, environment, earthquake and archeology and restoration, Tankut noted.
Tankut said that TUBITAK did not limit the budget for the projects which would be supported and that Greek officials wanted total budget of the projects to be around 100 thousand U.S dollars.
Turkey preferred to allocate greater amounts to the projects and they expected that Greece would act in this line, Tankut said.
Stating that the two countries supported the research and development projects by a new model, Tankut pointed out that they wanted the content of the projects to be satisfactory and the budget of them to be persuasive.
Committees and consultant and project groups of the two countries, would evaluate 79 projects separately and after the evaluation, the projects, which would be supported, would be determined by a joint study, Tankut noted.
Tankut added that they didn't determine a calendar related to the joint projects.