Our Erasmus+ project (2017-1-TR01-KA103-037348) covered 66 students (51 HE-SMS-P and 15 HE-SMP-P) and 5 staff members (HE-STT-P). Out of 51 HE-SMS-P participants, 48 mobilities were funded. Since faculties and academic units are also able to benefit from their own institutional financial resources, our staff teaching mobility grant has been transferred to SMS-P and SMP-P participants to be able to fund more students. Unfortunately, in comparison with the previous years' records, there was a decrease in the number of students who applied to the Erasmus+ project. Although 90 students were placed to partner institutions, 38 students informed us that they are no longer able to attend the Erasmus+ program, mainly because of the economic instability of the Turkish Lira. Even with the Erasmus+ financial support, some of the students/their parents stated that they are not able to sponsor an exchange semester abroad. Given the fact that attending the program is becoming financially harder for the outgoing students and a significant number of withdrawals are being received, there is an ongoing discussion about establishing an institutional financial support mechanism. In addition to the study and traineeship participants, 5 HE-STT-P were funded in line with the program.Lastly, 8 incoming students were hosted during the 2017 Project. Although there is a minor increase when compared with the previous years’ records, the number is still very low. We have contacted several partner institutions and invited them to nominate their students, but we have been informed that there are official/unofficial travel warnings for Turkey and that the parents and students are worried about the safety in general. We are pleased that all of the 8 incoming students were satisfied with their overall experience in Istanbul and Ozyegin University, and hope that they will share their positive impressions with their peers and home institution coordinators so that the safety concerns will diminish in the longer-term. We hope to welcome a growing number of incoming students and staff from partner institutions, as they contribute greatly to the internationalization agenda of the institution.

The Interdisciplinary Lunchbox Seminars on EU Integration offer an introduction to the EU and EU related subjects for students and staff of all faculties of Ozyegin University, high school students in the last year of their studies, and other interested public. The Seminars especially target the faculties that do not offer EU related courses in their curriculum. The Lunchbox Seminars are not designed to provide the participants with complex information on the EU, but aims at making the EU and its actions understandable and attractive in an unceremonious way. Attention will also be given to EU related subjects especially relevant to the field of study of the particular group attending, a topical issue from the EU itself or a local issue that is directly related to the EU. The format of the Seminars (in which the participants are allowed to consume their lunch during the course of the Seminar as its name already indicates) which is new in Turkey but is a wide-spread phenomena in the US where they are called ‘brown bag seminars’, encourages the realization of an informal atmosphere in which a discussion is more likely to take off. As the Seminars are organized during lunchtime, they will not interfere with other obligations of the main target public. During the Seminars, participants acquire basic knowledge regarding the EU, its history, institutions and policies, and the influence of the EU on their daily life through the presentations of the interdisciplinary team of instructors, but also through the ensuing discussions. This will result in the participants overcoming the bias against the EU that is presently widespread in Turkey, and also raise their awareness of the rights and obligations they have already gained (and may gain in future) personally and professionally, due to the effect of the EU on Turkey. It will also enhance their ability to make correct observations and sound political choices in future.

The recent catastrophic flood and landslide events triggered by heavy rainfalls have shown how vulnerable communities can be to natural disasters. To mitigate the impacts of natural disasters on communities, disaster resilience assessment and planning are required for the built-environment. The proposed research aims to develop a decision framework to support multi-hazard resilience of residential building stocks under rainfall-triggered floods and flow-type landslides (i.e., debris, mud-flows), considering two refinement levels in the framework: individual buildings vs. building portfolios in a community. The effects of uncertainties and spatial correlations in hazard demand and common building configurations and practices will be reflected in an aggregated assessment of multi-hazard resilience of building portfolios. The building portfolios that will be focused in the proposed methodology are residential buildings within a typical EU community, considering residential construction practice in Europe. However, the proposed framework can be adapted for resilience assessment and planning for other building portfolios involving different occupancies. The fellow Dr. Deniz, with her research experience in community disaster resilience and her firm-background in civil engineering, and reliability and statistical tools, has the required technical expertise to achieve the goal by conducting state-of-the-art robust analyses for the proposed project “A probabilistic decision framework for MULti-HAzard RESilience of residential building portfolios subjected to floods and landslides”. The proposed decision framework will greatly contribute to different stakeholders seeking to find optimal mitigation strategy for homes and to improve insurance portfolio risk policy, public policy and disaster management plans. This fellowship will support Dr. Deniz to establish an internationally well-recognized academic career and become one of the leading people on this particular research.