TÜBİTAK | Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu

This page is a historical reference for TÜBİTAK’s 1512 Entrepreneurship Support Program, known as BiGG, and specifically for the 2023-1 call. The call is closed. TÜBİTAK’s official call page records the application window as 27 March 2023 through 7 July 2023, and the official program page currently displays the 2023-1 call as its listed 1512 call. No later 1512 applicant deadline is announced on the official 1512 page reviewed for this update.

That distinction matters because TÜBİTAK’s current BiGG route is now presented through the 1812 Investment-Based Entrepreneurship Support Programme. The 1812 programme is related to the BiGG ecosystem, but it is not a new 1512 call and should not be treated as one. TÜBİTAK opened the 1812-2026-1 pre-seed investment call with a different support model: a TÜBİTAK BiGG Fund investment of up to TRY 1,350,000 in exchange for 3% equity, subject to the call terms. The 1812-2026-1 application deadline was 3 July 2026. This archive entry therefore does not present that closed 1812 call as an open 1512 opportunity.

Status at a glance

The amount in this page’s metadata belongs to the archived 1512-2023-1 call. It is not a promise about a future 1512 round. The 2023 call announcement states that the project-support ceiling was TRY 450,000 and that the approved amount would be transferred by the TÜBİTAK BiGG Fund as an investment for 3% equity. That is materially different from describing the 2023 call as a non-dilutive grant. The older description of TRY 900,000 in grant funding has therefore been removed.

What the 1512-2023-1 call was designed to support

The 1512 programme was intended for technology- and innovation-oriented business ideas that could become products, services, or processes with commercial value. TÜBİTAK described the programme as support from the idea stage toward the market, with the aim of encouraging qualified entrepreneurship and creating early-stage firms capable of developing innovative, technologically advanced offerings with international competitiveness.

The archived call used a staged route. In Stage 1, an applicant submitted a business idea to a TÜBİTAK-approved Implementing Organization. That organization collected and assessed ideas, selected promising ideas for an accelerator process, and helped applicants validate the technical and commercial basis of the idea. The support included mentoring, access to collaboration networks, and help preparing a business plan.

At the end of Stage 1, the Implementing Organization approved the business plans that could proceed. Approved applicants then submitted a Stage 2 business-plan application to TÜBİTAK. TÜBİTAK evaluated those plans through panels. An applicant whose plan was found eligible for support was required to establish the company that would receive the investment. The call announcement specified an incorporated company structure in Türkiye for the supported venture.

The wider 1512 programme page also describes a later Stage 3 route for companies established with Stage 2 support. That route concerns further research and development and commercialization work, including possible applications to TÜBİTAK’s 1507 SME R&D Start-up Support Program. It does not reopen the archived 1512-2023-1 application window. A company that completed the relevant 1512 Stage 2 support could use the Stage 3 route under its own rules, but a new applicant cannot use this archive page to submit a fresh 1512 application.

Who was eligible for the archived call

The 1512-2023-1 call allowed an applicant to apply if the person was enrolled in, or had graduated from, an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral programme. The call did not limit eligibility to one particular academic discipline, but the proposed venture had to fit the technology and innovation focus of the call and its thematic areas.

The call also imposed two important exclusion rules. First, an applicant could not already be in the ownership structure of a business on the preliminary application date. Second, the applicant must not previously have received Technogirişim Capital Support from the Ministry of Industry and Technology or TÜBİTAK 1512 Stage 2 support. These are more precise conditions than the old page’s broad reference to Turkish citizenship or residency. The archived call documents do not support treating citizenship or ordinary legal residence as a substitute for the stated student-or-graduate and prior-support conditions.

The 2023-1 call grouped eligible ideas into six thematic areas: smart transportation; smart manufacturing systems; energy and clean technologies; communication and digital transformation; health and well-being; and sustainable agriculture and nutrition. Examples in the official call include autonomous and electric vehicles, robotics and automation, energy storage, information security, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, medical devices, food technologies, and water efficiency. The list was a call scope, not a guarantee that every idea in one of those categories would be funded.

How the archived application process worked

The first application was made to one of the Implementing Organizations named for the call. Applicants did not begin by sending a complete Stage 2 plan directly to a general TÜBİTAK inbox. The Implementing Organization first handled the idea submission, assessment, acceleration, and business-plan preparation process.

For the preliminary application, the call required documentation matching the applicant’s status. Graduates were expected to provide an original diploma or exit document, a notarized copy, or a graduation document obtained through e-Devlet. Students were expected to provide an original current student certificate or a current certificate obtained through e-Devlet. Applicants also had to provide the signed undertaking required for the preliminary application period.

Applicants relying on a qualification from an overseas education programme had additional documentation obligations. A graduate needed an original or notarized copy of the equivalency document obtained from the Council of Higher Education, while an overseas student needed the relevant school-recognition document from e-Devlet or the Council of Higher Education. Missing documents could cause the application to be rejected.

After the Implementing Organization approved an applicant’s business plan, the applicant submitted the Stage 2 plan through TÜBİTAK’s PRODİS Project Evaluation and Monitoring System. Only applicants approved by their Implementing Organization could proceed to that stage. TÜBİTAK then assessed the plans in panels. The official programme page identifies three central assessment dimensions: the technology level and innovative character of the business plan, its suitability and feasibility, and its commercialization potential.

Successful applicants were asked to establish the company that would receive the support. The 2023-1 call required the supported company to be a Türkiye-based joint-stock company. The investment was tied to the approved business-plan budget, so the ceiling of TRY 450,000 was not an automatic payment. The plan had to present a realistic budget, and the panel process determined the amount brought within the support scope. The call described the transfer as an investment for 3% equity rather than a repayment-free grant.

Archived call timeline

The official 2023-1 call documents give the following sequence:

• Preliminary applications to Implementing Organizations were accepted from 27 March 2023 through 31 May 2023 at 17:00.
• Implementing Organizations ran Stage 1 activities from 27 March 2023 through 15 June 2023.
• TÜBİTAK accepted Stage 2 applications from 1 June 2023 through 23 June 2023 at 23:59.
• Implementing Organizations had to deliver applicants’ documents to TÜBİTAK by 7 July 2023.
• Missing application documents could be completed from 10 July 2023 through 21 July 2023.
• Stage 2 panel evaluations were scheduled for September through October 2023.
• The announcement of entrepreneurs eligible for support was scheduled for November 2023.
• Company formation and contract signing were scheduled for December 2023.
• The planned support start was January 2024.

These dates describe the completed 1512-2023-1 process. They are retained here because they identify the archived opportunity and explain why the metadata deadline is a real historical date. They should not be read as an invitation to submit documents now.

What applicants should use instead

Anyone looking for a current TÜBİTAK BiGG entry point should first read TÜBİTAK’s current announcements and identify whether the relevant opportunity is an 1812 investment call, a later programme, or a different support instrument. The official 1812-2026-1 announcement says that Stage 1 acceleration activities were carried out by Implementing Organizations and that entrepreneurs who completed those programmes could submit business plans to TÜBİTAK. It also records a 2026-2028 acceleration period, a Stage 2 submission window from 15 June 2026 through 3 July 2026, a company-formation and contract deadline of 30 September 2026, and a support start date of 1 October 2026. Those dates belong to 1812-2026-1, not to 1512-2023-1.

The official 1612 page further explains that the Implementing Organizations selected for the 2026-2028 period conduct Stage 1 activities under the 1812 BiGG Investment framework. That is useful context for finding a future route, but it is not evidence of a new 1512 deadline. Applicants should not copy the 1812 amount, equity terms, or dates into a 1512 application and should not rely on this archive entry as a live application form.

Bottom line

TÜBİTAK 1512-2023-1 was a technology-entrepreneurship call with a real 7 July 2023 closing date. Its archived support ceiling was TRY 450,000, transferred as an investment for 3% equity after panel evaluation and company formation. Students and graduates could apply if they met the prior-support and company-ownership conditions, first through an Implementing Organization and then through PRODİS after approval.

The page is marked as a historical reference because the official source reviewed for this update does not announce a later 1512 applicant cycle. TÜBİTAK’s newer 1812 BiGG Investment Programme is the relevant current framework shown in the official 2026 announcements, but it is a separate programme and its 2026-1 application window has closed. Check the official TÜBİTAK pages linked above for any future call before preparing an application.