Our projects
Galatasaray University has submitted ten projects to the ‘System for Reporting University Contributions and Projects’ established by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) as part of COP31. Seven of these projects fall within the fields of research, technological development and entrepreneurship, whilst the other three fall under the category of side events and workshops. The project evaluation process is not yet complete; this page will be updated as results are announced.
Research, technological development and entrepreneurship
Seven projects have been submitted in this category. Three relate to maritime and campus measurements, two to sustainability reporting, one to green artificial intelligence and another to entrepreneurship.
| Project | Academics | Corresponding COP31 theme |
|---|---|---|
| The importance of requirements relating to emergency operations and search and rescue for stakeholders in international maritime transport, and their impact on the maritime policy of maritime nations and sustainable development | Assoc. Prof. Dr Hasan Bora Usluer | Oceans and Seas |
| Surface current power station in the Strait of Istanbul — Sampling at Ortaköy, on the Galatasaray University campus | Assoc. Prof. Dr Hasan Bora Usluer | Clean Energy Transition |
| Sampling for carbon and noise pollution on the Galatasaray University campus in Ortaköy | Assoc. Prof. Dr Hasan Bora Usluer | Climate-Resilient Cities |
| Green-SLM: low-carbon SLM architecture for enterprise artificial intelligence systems and a compliance framework for green artificial intelligence | Prof. Dr Gülfem Alptekin | Green Industrialisation |
| COP31 ETKİ start-up project | Asst. Prof. Dr Belgin Bahar | Green Industrialisation |
| The role of corporate sustainability reporting practices in Master’s and PhD programmes in business administration, and their importance in the context of social contribution projects carried out by universities | Prof. Dr Banu Dinçer Prof. Dr İdil Kaya Asst. Prof. Dr Destan Halit Akbulut |
Youth and Education |
| Sectoral analysis of sustainability reporting | Prof. Dr Banu Dinçer Prof. Dr İdil Kaya Asst. Prof. Dr Destan Halit Akbulut |
Green Industrialisation |
Side events and workshops
Three programmes were presented in this category. All three are open to the public outside the university; two are aimed directly at young people, and one at the general public.
| Programme | Academics | Corresponding COP31 theme |
|---|---|---|
| COP31 Time — Sustainability awareness seminar programme for secondary school pupils | Assoc. Prof. Dr Gaye Aslı Sancar Demren | Youth and Education |
| COP31 Time — Sustainability awareness and climate literacy seminar programme for young people aged 18–25 | Assoc. Prof. Dr Gaye Aslı Sancar Demren | Youth and Education |
| GSU COP31 Webinar Series | Assoc. Prof. Dr Gaye Aslı Sancar Demren | Youth and Education |
Announcements regarding these three programmes will be published as soon as their schedules have been finalised and will be added to the calendar on the ‘Activities’ page.
About the third column. The ‘Corresponding COP31 theme’ column in the tables has been added to link the projects to the summit’s ten priority themes. This mapping is an assessment carried out to make the information easier to read; the official categorisation of the projects within the YÖK system corresponds to the two categories above.
Breakdown of projects
The ten projects relate to five of the summit’s ten priority themes.
| COP31 theme | Number of projects |
|---|---|
| Youth and Education | 4 |
| Green Industrialisation | 3 |
| Oceans and Seas | 1 |
| Clean Energy Transition | 1 |
| Climate-Resilient Cities | 1 |
| Total | 10 |
Two themes stand out. Youth and Education is the most natural area for a university to focus on within the COP31 process: this theme of the summit is directly relevant to higher education. Green Industrialisation, for its part, focuses – through sustainability reports and research into green artificial intelligence – on how to measure and report on the carbon intensity of production.
How did the process unfold?
As part of the preparations for COP31, a participation model involving the 208 universities in Türkiye was established in collaboration with the Council of Higher Education and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change. A COP31 coordinator was appointed at each university, and proposals were collected via a single institutional reporting system.
The public launch of the process took place on 4 August 2026 during the event ‘Science Diplomacy on the Road to COP31: Academic Launch’, organised at the Council of Higher Education. According to the results announced on 19 August 2026, a total of 3,373 applications were received from 2,767 participants.
The ten projects submitted by our university form part of this pool. The evaluation of applications is currently underway; this page will be updated as soon as the selected projects are announced.
Our university’s work in this context is led by the University’s COP31 Coordination Office. For further details on the process, please consult the ‘Our University’ page; for the calendar, see the ‘Activities’ page.
