2021 European Innovation Council (EIC) Grant

Prof. Hakan Ürey from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Prof. Afsun Şahin from the School of Medicine received a funding of 2 million Euros with their “Cataract Simulator Device Development Project” from the European Innovation Council (EIC). The project will allow cataract patients and people over the age of 50 who do not wish to wear glasses to “see” how their vision will be in the future. The cataract simulator device developed by Prof. Ürey and Prof. Şahin will give the patients an opportunity to experience how they will see after the surgery, helping them to make the decision for surgery easier and to choose the most suitable lens. .

This project is the first EIC Grant received by Koç University under the EU’s Horizon Europe funding program for research and innovation, which is a successor to the Horizon 2020 program. The project was approved for funding through the European Innovation Council’s Pathfinder program, which offers support to research teams “to research or develop an emerging breakthrough technology”. We are also one of the only two universities in Türkiye to have been awarded under this program.

We wholeheartedly congratulate Prof. Hakan Ürey, Prof. Afsun Şahin and the members of their laboratories for their continued success in these very tough European-wide competitions.