Societal Impact of the Research Program

Project Name: Societal Impact of the Research Program

Responsible APYK: ODTÜ-GÜNAM

Project Principal Investigator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar DERİN GÜRE

Project Information:

The widespread use of solar energy and photovoltaic energy generation systems has social and economic impacts such as employment, export, economic growth, and ultimately sustainable development, as well as being important for a sustainable and clean environment. To evaluate and measure these impacts, a study on the societal impact of the research program will be carried out. The main aim of this study is to determine the environmental, macroeconomic, and social impacts such as employment, growth, and export of the activities to be carried out within the framework of TFTP’s main mission to produce high-efficiency solar cell types in Türkiye and to develop and disseminate all levels of R&D-based production technologies that will contribute to this production. The activities to be carried out within the platform, by developing domestic technology and increasing the use of domestic energy sources, will reduce Türkiye’s current account deficit, which is largely due to resource and technology imports; increase employment in the energy and manufacturing sectors; and ultimately provide long-term contributions to Türkiye’s sustainable development and green growth targets. In Türkiye’s energy policy and strategy documents; it is clearly stated that within the scope of the Development Plan and international agreements obligations followed within the EU harmonization process, the use of domestic, renewable, and clean energy sources should be expanded in energy production and consumption, and domestic energy technologies should be supported. In the Social Impact project, analyzing the impacts of the activities to be carried out within the research program in line with this framework will constitute the main outputs of this study. Within the scope of the Social Impact Project, the measurement and evaluation of social and economic impact will be carried out at micro, meso, and macro levels. The micro-level aim of the project is to evaluate the current status and performance, targets and needs, predictions, and the results of these predictions of the projects within the platform. The mid-level (meso) aim is to collect data on the individual impacts of the projects within the platform and their interactions; and to develop recommendations for the evaluation and improvement of the platform’s periodic and final performance. The macro-level aim of the project is to measure and evaluate the national dimension of the societal impact that will occur at the end of the project. Within the scope of the project, quantitative “General Equilibrium Model,” qualitative “Interview,” “Focus Group Study,” and “Survey Study” methods, which will be carried out simultaneously and will feed each other, will be used to measure social impact.