Scientific Research Fund Guide

Application Conditions

  • To benefit from the Scientific Research Fund, the applicants who will be principal investigators must be full-time “faculty members” or “lecturers.” Research assistants or students cannot apply as principal investigators; however, as per Subparagraph 2 of Article 5 in the Scientific Research Projects Directive, students enrolled in the graduate programs of the University can apply for support if there is a budget allocated to support their thesis based on a research project. Applications of this nature are made under the supervision of the appointed thesis advisor. The application and evaluation of such projects are carried out according to the principles determined by the BAP Commission.
  • The application form and the documents required in the application must be submitted in full to the Technology Transfer Office by the deadline announced by the Rectorate.
  • Priority is given to projects that have yet to receive BAP support in evaluating BAP applications.
  • The faculty member who is a “researcher” in a BAP project can simultaneously participate in another BAP project only as a “principal investigator.”
  • “Researchers” in a BAP project can simultaneously take part in one more project (2 projects in total) as “researchers.” 
  • The Technology Transfer Office gives the application number. 
  • Istanbul Bilgi University’s Directive on Scientific Research Projects can be found here.

Budget and Payments

  • In budget requests, the price, including VAT for domestic purchases and all costs for foreign purchases (customs fee, taxes, shipping), should be written. When calculating the TL equivalent of pro forma invoices received in foreign currency, the effective sales rate of the Central Bank of Turkey should be taken as a base, and this definitely should be stated in the proposal.
  • For those who will work for BAP projects, the payments must be calculated over the gross wage, including the employer’s cost. 
  • The principal investigator or the researchers will not receive any promotion bonus or payment within the project’s scope.
  • For those who are expected to work in BAP projects for a fee, the daily wage is determined as gross 784 TL, including employer costs. The calculations are made based on 20 days per month (month x 20 days x 784TL) for the research assistants who are expected to work full-time and for the research assistants who are expected to work part-time, based on the actual days they work on condition it does not exceed 20 days per day (month x number of days worked x 784TL) for the months they are expected to work.
  • It is possible to make relocations between the budget items. Budget relocations up to 20% of the total budget are under the principal investigator’s responsibility, while relocations over 20% can be realized with the approval of the BAP Commission. The PI should send a letter requesting the budget relocation for both occasions.
  • The related articles of “Istanbul Bilgi University Principals on Travel Expenses” are valid for travel and accommodation expenditures to be incurred within the scope of the projects. 
  • Data collection, input, and analysis work should be done by the project team as much as possible. 
  • Research or service support from outside the University can only be provided with a service agreement.
  • The travel requests that are needed while conducting the research, which may directly contribute to the research, are met. However, travel costs, such as conference attendance to publish research results, are not supported by the BAP Fund.
  • Co-funding or infrastructure-building expenses of research projects that will be carried out with external resources can be financed. 
  • Computer purchases can be financed for computation-intensive research projects upon justification. Apart from this, there is no support for computer purchases, and the University's current resources should be used. 

Application Assessment

  • The proposals requiring the participation of live subjects need to receive Ethics Board approval before application. 
  • Project assessments are carried out by internal and/or external evaluators, whom the BAP Commission will select. The Commission concludes support decisions. 
  • BAP project calls and applications can be made twice yearly (March and September).

Reporting

  • For projects lasting 6 months and shorter, only a final report is required; for projects lasting longer than 6 months, an interim report and a final report are requested. The interim and final report templates are available here. 
  • The interim and final reports of the projects that have not been carried out in accordance with the execution procedures regarding the budget are evaluated by the BAP Commission and reported to the Rectorate.
  • Requests for any extension of time and changes in budget items are submitted in writing to the Technology Transfer Office and decided by the BAP Commission.