Erdogan announces plan to train 550 doctoral students in strategic tech

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Thursday that Türkiye will select 550 doctoral students through a centralized examination for training at 20 research universities in strategic technological fields. The program targets domains including artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

"In strategic fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, chip technologies and advanced computer systems, we will initially select 550 doctoral students through a centralized examination and train them at 20 research universities," Erdogan said on X. The initiative aims to integrate 3,000 young researchers into the national ecosystem within five years.

Century of Türkiye

"We will build the Century of Türkiye with the power of science, technology and our young people," Erdogan stated. He added that authorities would pursue "a strong, prosperous and fully independent Türkiye that develops, produces and presents the technologies of the future to the world."

Strategic context

The announcement comes as Ankara seeks to expand domestic capabilities in high-tech sectors. Türkiye has previously outlined plans to reduce dependency on foreign semiconductor manufacturers.