Plenary Lecture: Sowing Seeds of STEM for Impact: Empowering Youth for Sustainable Solutions

Addressing global risks and challenges for sustainable development requires accelerated and widespread mobilization across research, development, and innovation actors for increasing impact. The core mission of The World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations (WAITRO) is fostering innovation on a global scale and driving sustainable development by empowering member organizations across borders and boundaries through the approach of co-creation based collaboration. The WAITRO community that represents a network of 160 members from about 70 countries involves a wide range of research, technology, and innovation activities across multiple areas that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Utilizing a wide range of expertise in co-creation based collaboration remains to be crucial in undertaking the responsibility of being an advocate and influencer of sustainable innovation. Ensuring that such empowerment comes through human resources who have strong skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and an outlook for an approach of co-creation based collaboration is essential. Key skills for the jobs of the future already include analytical and creative thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility, technology literacy, leadership, social influence, and systems thinking, among others.

With the aim of empowering youth for sustainable solutions, this plenary presentation will focus on the dedicated efforts of Türkiye through the Teknofest Aerospace and Technology Festival with a particular focus on the numerous competitions that are organized by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) for a green and digital transition. These innovative technology competitions sow the seeds of innovation and range from efficient electric vehicles to unmanned aerial vehicles and tasks, vertical landing rockets, and hyperloop technology as next generation transport systems. The technology competitions also include those on artificial intelligence in mobility, robotaxi, operating systems and software, blockchain technologies, integrated circuits, quantum computing techniques, biotechnology, climate change and polar research as well as thematic research projects of university students in such areas as energy and environment, smart cities and transport, education, food and agriculture, and health. The presentation will analyze the role of these innovative technology competitions in empowering young human resources for sustainable solutions within a broader, integrated strategy that extends to fostering human resources for co-creation based collaboration. Among other relevant examples, the Technology Makers Lab and TÜBİTAK-WAITRO Postgraduate and Postdoctoral Fellowship that supports research within the SDGs framework will be shared. This cross-cutting presentation will support the theme of strategies for creating sustainable solutions and achieving global impact alongside the themes of enabling local solutions and sustaining innovation as well as digital and green transformation for future navigation.

 Speaker：

Prof. Dr. Hasan MANDAL

President of WAITRO

Counsellor of TÜBITAK and Rector of İstanbul Technical University (İTÜ)

Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal received his Ph.D. from Newcastle University (United Kingdom) in 1992. He conducted postdoctoral research at the same university in 1992-1994 and at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) as an Alexander Humboldt Fellow in 1997-1998. In 1994, he started to work as an assistant professor in the Department of Ceramic Engineering at Anadolu University, where he was appointed as associate professor in 1996 and full professor in 2001.

Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal has over 140 publications, 70 of which were published in SCI journals, with more than 1200 citations. Prof. Dr. Mandal also holds 6 international patents. Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal is the recipient of various national and international awards, including the TÜBİTAK Science Award. He is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), the World Academy of Ceramics (WAC), and the Academia Europaea (AE). In 2023, he was included in the top 2% of the “World’s Most Influential Scientists” list prepared through the cooperation of Stanford University and Elsevier.

Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal was appointed as a member of the Turkish Presidency’s Science, Technology and Innovation Policies Council on October 8, 2018, and was elected as its Deputy Chair on November 1, 2018, and as a member of the CoHE on April 27, 2019. Since January 1, 2020, he has been one of the Council Members of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries (UNTB). He was also elected as the President of the Executive Board of the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations (WAITRO) on November 16, 2022. He continues to serve in these positions.

Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal served as the President of TÜBİTAK between February 22, 2018 and August 16, 2024. He was appointed as the Rector of ITU on August 16, 2024.

Plenary Presentation: Impact Licensing asa Strategic Instrument for Sustainable Technology Transfer for the UN Sustainable Development Goals 

Impact licensing is an innovative tool designed to facilitate the sustainable transfer of technology to low- and middle-income countries in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently, many technologies and innovations remain underutilized despite their potential to address global societal challenges both now and in the future. Impact licensing allows these technologies to be sublicensed to tackle significant social and environmental issues while still generating economic returns through their deployment in commercial markets. This presentation will introduce the concept of impact licensing, provide examples of its application to key enabling technologies, and outline our strategies for integrating impact licensing into international intellectual property and licensing frameworks.

Speaker：

Johan Moyersoen

Founder and General Manager of the Impact Licensing Initiative

Johan brings over two decades of expertise in social business innovation and scaling social enterprises on an international scale. He is the founder and general manager of the Impact Licensing Initiative. Previously, he was a serial entrepreneur focusing on social businesses and intermediaries supporting shared value and social entrepreneurship in Europe. His academic journey includes studies in International Relations, Anthropology, Regional Science, and Economic Geography at esteemed institutions such as the University of Ghent, KU Leuven, Cornell University, and Oxford University. Johan’s contributions extend beyond academia; he has founded the Network of European Peace Scientists and has published numerous articles on impact licensing, social business, social justice, and conflict management in respected books and international journals.