Kalkanlı Technology Valley (KALTEV), is designed as an R&D and production zone that brings entrepreneurs who produce innovative technology together with the academicians who can provide groundwork for this technology. The work for the establishment of KALTEV started in September 2016 and the protocol for the investment of KALTEV was signed in March 2017. KALTEV’s first initiative and launch of the first incubation program in North Cyprus, Think, Try, Transform, initiated the process needed to transform the projects of entrepreneurial ODTÜ students into product. The foundation of Kalkanlı Technology Valley R & D Complex was launched on May 22, 2017.

Three key objectives of the Kalkanlı Technology Valley:

• To bring together all the components (academia, industry and public institutions) that will play a role in innovative and sustainable production and to establish a production process that will turn research outputs into added value,
• To cooperate with industry members who want to develop their production processes with innovative technologies and researchers and students who are looking for support to develop advanced technologies,
• To improve employment opportunities by supporting technology-based development in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Middle East Technical University, the architect of Turkey’s first technology center, aims to become the initiator of the technology-oriented development revolution in the island by establishing the first technology valley of Northern Cyprus. With this mission, KALTEV will bring together the stakeholders such as students in North Cyprus, whose number is exceeding 90.000, hundreds of researchers, industry, entrepreneurs and TÜBİTAK, the Office of Coordination for Development and Economic Cooperation of Turkish Embassy of Nicosia and non-governmental organizations. The innovation energy and research potential of the stakeholders that come together will transform North Cyprus with science and technology!

With the idea of “ODTÜ does not have Silicon Valley but there is Kalkanlı Valley”, Kalkanlı Technology Valley aims to carry ODU’s 61 years’ research and development experience. KALTEV was designed as a production ecosystem that would produce productive collaborations between researchers and industry, working to mature entrepreneurial ideas at incubation centers. With the principle “Science does not recognize isolation.” ODTÜ KALTEV will focus on study fields that will shed light on the future of the World such as sustainability, cyber security, renewable energy, advanced materials, intelligent systems, water and waste management, and developmental studies.

Kalkanlı Technology Valley is designed to acquire the official status of the Technology Development Zone. The work of legal legislation related to Technology Development Zones in T.R.N.C. continue intensely.