What the Long Cooperation Relationship between JICA and the Istanbul Technical University Enabled: Being a Leader in Disaster Management in Türkiye and Beyond

Istanbul Technical University (ITU) is known for Türkiye 's first and one of the world's oldest technical universities. It is now a leading academy, acquiring influence from research to policymaking. Especially, its impact on disaster management has currently been highlighted and drawn attention, especially after the 2023 February Earthquakes and the increasing prediction for the earthquake in the Marmara region.

JICA has had a long cooperation relationship with ITU for almost 50 years and would like to reflect back the milestone on this occasion.

Cooperation from 1976
JICA started its technical cooperation in Türkiye in 1959. In 1976, JICA started its cooperation to provide training opportunities in Japan for young researchers of ITU to build their capacity and develop their studies.

Establishment of a Laboratory in ITU
In 1993, as received a request from the Türkish government, JICA launched a technical cooperation project, namely “the Project for the Establishment of Earthquake Disaster Prevention Research Center in the Republic of Turkey”. In the project, JICA provided the essential types of machinery to ITU to establish a structural and earthquake engineering experimental lab and a series of training to the researchers of ITU to enhance their capacity for implementation of the experiment by utilizing the provided machines.
Even after this project finished in 2000 by observing the establishment of the lab, ITU has been developing the lab by itself. Today, the lab acquires multiple machineries to implement the different types of experiments to advance the its research further.

Continuous training opportunities for young researchers
JICA and ITU further developed the cooperation by continuously providing training opportunities. In total, 63 researchers of ITU studied in research institutes and universities in Japan. After the training, coming back to ITU and developing their research at the lab, many of them have been awarded doctoral degrees from ITU and became researchers and professors at ITU or other universities in Türkiye and beyond. Additionally, many of them are now members and young leaders of the Turkish Society of Earthquake Engineering and are involved in the development of national seismic codes and guidelines.

Receiving the Third Country Training Program
Nowadays, as the leading research institute of Earthquake Engineering and Disaster Management in Türkiye and in the neighboring countries, ITU is a vital partner for JICA. Currently, we have a new partnership for JICA’s Third Country Training Program for Disaster Management. Third Country Trainings Program is one of the triangular cooperation schemes where third countries accept trainees from other developing countries with JICA's assistance for the purpose of technology transfer or dissemination. In the program, ITU provided pieces of training and lectures to some developing country’s trainees to enhance their capacity. By this year (2024), the total number of the participants reaches to 89 and will increase in the following years. This program illuminates ITU’s capacity and influence going beyond to contribute to other countries’ development.

After the 2023 February Earthquakes and with an increasing prediction for the earthquake in the Marmara region, we recognize that the need for disaster management has been incredibly rising. JICA will continue to support Türkiye in developing comprehensive disaster management with the cooperation with the local partners.