As stated on the programme’s website (), the first call for proposals of Interreg NEXT MED Programme, with a budget of €103 million, finances projects to make the Mediterranean a smarter, greener, more inclusive, and better-governed region, and we are looking for partners for collaboration for this programme.

We are from Suleyman Demirel University (SDU) in Turkey’s Mediterranean part, located in an eligible area for Interreg NEXT MED call. We have grouped ourselves as two institutions: SDU on the academic side and Antalya Chamber of Commodity Exchange on the representative of the business side.

Suleyman Demirel University was officially established in 1992 by taking its name from Süleyman Demirel, the 9th President of the Turkish Republic, even though the efforts of founding a university in Isparta dates back to 1970s.Süleyman Demirel University has been among the leading universities of Turkey in academic, scientific and technological fields with its rapid growth momentum in qualitative and quantitative fields since 1992, its foundation year. The university has over two hundred thousand graduates, and 1120 students of the 39220 are PhD students.

Antalya Commodity Exchange was established in 1920 and concentrated on agriculture and agricultural products. Antalya, in this line, has a distinctive position not only for domestic agricultural production but also for its worldwide-known agricultural export products. Another uniqueness of Antalya comes from its touristic attraction, from all over the world, nearly half of the incoming tourists to Turkey visit Antalya.

Our tentative project idea departs from the importance of the agricultural sector and its sustainability for the Mediterranean region. On the one hand, the EU faces various types of problems in order to guarantee the financial and physical sustainability of agricultural products. On the other hand, associate and other countries struggle to meet the EU regulations to sustain their exports.

In order to enable firms engaged in agriculture and agricultural industry within the Mediterranean region to sustain their operations (such as procurement, production, and sales) in alignment with the principles of circular economy, it is proposed to develop innovative solutions tailored to the dynamics of local stakeholders (NUST2 or NUTS3 regions) and to meet the emerging transition to green economy. These solutions aim to reduce carbon footprint by implementing various levels of applications and policies (at micro, meso, and macro levels), while also fostering increased awareness.

If you are interested in cooperation, please feel free to contact us for any additional information.

 Agriculture

 Rural Development

 Low-Carbon Technology

 Low-Carbon Economy

 Environment

 Euro-Mediterranean Relations

 INTERREG

 Green Deal