Turkish, UK universities launch child health research partnership

Türkiye’s Sabri Ulker Foundation, based in Istanbul, has launched a long-term research partnership to advance child health studies and train young scientists.

The four-year program, done with Britain’s Newcastle University and Hacettepe University, located in the Turkish capital Ankara, will support three doctoral researchers and do comparative studies in Türkiye and the UK on nutrition, physical activity, metabolic health, cognitive performance, and mental well-being among school-age children.

It will also include researcher exchanges, joint training programs, and annual scientific symposiums hosted alternately by the two countries.

“This partnership will create a sustainable scientific ecosystem in which researchers from different countries work together, produce knowledge, share experience, and train the research leaders of the future,” said Yahya Ulker, who chairs the foundation.

Newcastle’s Bernard Corfe, a professor of human nutrition and health, said global health challenges require international and interdisciplinary scientific partnerships.