CONSOLIDATING THE EXPERTISE OF NECMETTIN ERBAKAN UNIVERSITY TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF BIOFIBERS FOR WOUND HEALING AND TISSUE REGENERATION

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Biomaterials have gained much interest as a very important category of materials because of their wide application in medicine and benefit to patient such as increased longevity and improved quality of life. There is clear evidence of a stable increase of the biomaterials market for the next fifteen years. European Biomaterials Market represents a market of 7 € billion and the global Biomaterials market is five times the European market. Biomaterials sector has not yet been in a good position among the high-value chains in Turkey. Turkey imports biomedical devices, instruments and materials, especially Advanced Therapy and Medicinal Products (ATMPs) about 85%. In Turkey, few R&D activities and limited coordination of academy-industry are the main barriers to develop competitive biomaterial products and high value research in biomaterials field in Turkey. Necmettin Erbakan University (NEU) is a young University in Konya-Turkey with well-equipped Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Institute of Science and the dedicated research center, Science and Technology Research and Application Centre, brings together the scientists researching on medicine, material, energy, biomaterial sciences and focusing on creative answers to today's scientific challenges. NEU has weakness on developing functional biofibers for medicinal applications, specifically to be applied in wound healing and tissue regeneration. The proposal REGENEU aims to meet the requirements of the HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-03-01: Twinning Call. The main focus of this project is to increase the scientific capabilities and excellence of NEU in the field of biofiber research and development for translational application. This target is supported by European partners Fraunhofer (Germany), UKW (Germany), TCD (Ireland) and RCSI (Ireland). NEU needs to transfer knowledge about its weak side, on the development and production of innovative and GMP conform functionalized biofibers for wound healing.