KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 (Bernama) — The Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) are seeking proposals for the Grand Challenge 3.0 on bilateral translational research collaboration in Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) from institutions and private entities in both countries.
MIGHT in a statement today said that the call coincided with Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI) Minister Chang Lih Kang’s working visit to Turkiye to strengthen scientific and technological collaborations between the two countries.
MIGHT said that this is the third round of the MIGHT TUBITAK Grand Challenge, which was launched following the signing of an agreement between MIGHT and TUBITAK on Oct 17, 2020.
“The programme is designed to support research and development (R&D) projects through industry-academia cooperation projects and co-creation of innovations.
“Focus areas of collaboration are core and generative artificial intelligence, hydrogen energy and energy storage, sustainable agriculture advanced materials for aerospace, IoT in space technologies, and robotics in space technologies,” according to the statement.
The collaboration is supported by the Malaysia Science Endowment (MSE), a joint initiative between MOSTI and the Academy of Sciences of Malaysia to sustain national R&D funding.
The call is open to collaborations between Turkish and Malaysian parties, with each consortium consisting of an academic or research entity and a commercial partner. Each project duration is two years.
Previous winners include a collaboration between Bingol University and Kadifeteks in Turkey and Malaysia’s Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, FixCoLab, and National Nanotechnology Centre MOSTI to develop a web-based Prototype Nanomaterials Risk (NanoRisk) Assessment for Paint and Coating and Textile Industries.
Another winning collaboration was between Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Pomega Corporation of Turkiye, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Serdang Paste Technology for Composite Supercapacitor Devices Produced by Sputtered and/or Loaded 2D InSe, GaSe, and MoS2 Layer Structures on Grafinated CNT-Cotton.
Chang, in the same statement, expressed great enthusiasm for collaborations with Turkiye for significant mutual benefits in the fields of science, technology, and innovation (STI), as Malaysia moves towards becoming a high-tech nation by 2030 and implementing the various policies and roadmaps to support this vision.
During the visit to Turkiye, Chang was accompanied by the Malaysian Ambassador to Turkiye, Sazali Mustafa Kamal, and MOSTI deputy secretary-general (Technology Development) Datuk Dr Mohd Nor Azman Hassan while MIGHT was represented by its senior vice-president Mohd Zakwan Mohd Zabidi and TUBITAK by its president, Professor Dr Orhan Aydin.
Established in 1963, TUBITAK is Turkiye’s leading institution for managing, funding, and conducting research and development and also serves as an advisory body to the Turkish Government on science and research apart from the secretariat for the Supreme Council for Science and Technology, Turkiye’s highest S&T policy-making body.
— BERNAMA
