The International Leader Researchers Program launched by Turkey in December, saw an influx of applications from scientists working abroad, thanks to a set of incentives. The Ministry of Industry and Technology announced on Friday that more than 200 people from more than 30 countries applied for the program, whose application deadline was on Friday. Minister Mustafa Varank said he was "proud" to announce that both Turkish scientists working abroad and foreign researchers applied to the program. "There are researchers, professors among applicants and some are from prestigious universities like Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge and Yale. We have applicants from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from Imperial College. A professor who was in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize is among the applicants. We have people from companies like Intel, Amazon, Siemens and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)."

The minister said most applications came from the United States and the United Kingdom, followed by Germany. "Pioneers of science chose Turkey and decided to move here for their research, studies. They will play a critical role in the development of Turkey's national technologies and their conversion to economic value. Our country becomes a center of attraction for exceptional scientists and we will build our efforts for industrial development, for national technology on this solid foundation they will provide," the minister said.

The program primarily aims to reverse the brain drain of Turkish scientists while also inviting leading scientists of their respective fields. The requirements for application include studying, working at the world's top 100 universities, authoring studies cited the most and conducting high-level scientific studies.

Within this program, the total scholarship starts at TL 500,000 for young researchers and TL 1 million for more experienced researchers. Researchers will receive a TL 20,000 or 24,000 scholarship per month depending on their experience level. Scholarship holders are to receive financial support for 24 to 36 months for the project. They will receive research starting pack allowances. The government will provide scholarships for doctoral students who take part in the program and efficiency wages for all researchers. The living expenses of the researchers and their families, as well as insurance and travel expenses, will be covered under the project.

Turkey has recently sought to ramp up its research output, particularly in the fields of science and technology. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized technological advancement in his 100-day plan for a new government largely made up of technocrats and called on Turkish scientists to return home from abroad. The country's earlier efforts to bring back its academic diaspora ensured the return of more than 595 researchers to Turkey in the past eight years after they pursued a career abroad. The state-run Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) has already drafted an inventory of Turkish scientists living abroad and offered scholarships in order to reverse the brain drain, in cooperation with the European Research Council.