Global health spending reached 8 trillion US dollars today. Turkey's health spending accounted for about 5% of GDP. Advances in health technology aim both to reduce the burden of health related expenditures on countries and to improve the services provided.

Boğaziçi University Life Sciences and Technologies Research Center (BULifeSci), which has been providing support and technical infrastructure for academic and industrial researches in Istanbul since 2008, will strengthen the support  for medical development services with its "R&D Support Laboratories for Increasing Global Competitiveness of Life Sciences SMEs" project. The project aims to meet the new needs of SMEs that carry out research and development (R&D) activities in the field of biotechnology to create high value-added health products.

The testing and analysis capacities of the center are further strengthened with advanced biotechnological equipment such as modular laminar-flow cabins, animal imaging systems and material characterization devices provided within the scope of the project. With the new technical equipment added to BULifeSci capabilities, SMEs working in the field of biotechnology will be supported in the entire value chain from the idea stage to the first batch production.

BULifeSci gains the capacity to compete with similar international centers with the professional technical support and training services provided during this project. This project aims also to improve the cooperation among organizations offering complementary services in the health sector, government and university research centers, regional and national public institutions such as Ministries, Turkey Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, the Turkish Standards Institute, accreditation agencies, interface organizations such as technology transfer offices, technoparks, and industrial partners. The cooperation in the sector will be improved significantly and entrepreneurship in the fields of life sciences and health technology  will be enhanced by providing the technological infrastructure and expertise that SMEs cannot achieve by themselves.

When new equipment added to BULifeSci becomes operational and all sectoral services of the center are strengthened, 50 SMEs will benefit from training, 40 selected SMEs will be supported in accordance with current situation analysis and at least 10 research jobs will be created. The development efforts will be turned into three product prototypes and 2 international patents applications authored by Turkish stakeholders will be filed.