In our interview with Prof.Dr. Gonca Telli from TAGES Industry and Information Technology Research Development and Innovation Inc., we spoke about the challenges of encouraging women in deep tech, which inspired Trust4Futures, one of the winning proposals from the Call for Training Proposals 2024.
Trust4Future
As the Founder and Advisory Board Member of Istanbul Blockchain Women and CEO of TAGES, Leyla Arsan recognized a unique opportunity to empower women through deep tech training. This vision gave rise to the Trust4Future project, built on the long-standing collaboration between TAGES and Edinburgh Napier University, particularly through the expertise and impactful contributions of Professor Bill Buchanan in the field of cybersecurity.
“We believe the partnership will play a key role in advancing our mission to create a more inclusive, and equal digital landscape.”
Gonca explained that Trust4Future is an ambitious training initiative aimed at equipping individuals, particularly women, with the expertise needed to develop secure, trustworthy, and privacy-centric digital services. The programme emphasizes deep technical skills in cryptography, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and blockchain, bridging academia and industry. By addressing the significant gender gap in fields like blockchain and crypto, where women remain vastly underrepresented, Trust4Future is not only a skills programme but a pioneering step toward greater gender equality in deep tech.
She said: “We try to provide women with the necessary skills and comprehensive training and aim to empower them to take active roles in emerging technologies like blockchain and NFTs.”
“Promoting diversity and inclusivity not only enriches the industry as a whole but also ensures that innovation serves society’s broader needs.”
However, Gonca emphasised that although many women are already working in engineering, IT, human resources, and factories, they too should be given opportunities to reskill or upskill in digital and deep tech fields, and that this remains a significant challenge.
She added: “Because this is a dynamic field where everything is constantly changing. It’s an active and evolving world we must be prepared for, and women should have the opportunity to represent their place in it.”
She went on to explain that they aim to train 600 talents through the programme, and want half of these talents to be women, however, to achieve this, collaboration with other organisations is key, such as Istanbul Blockchain Women who are very keen on this project because it will be their first EU-funded project, and they also have many members who would be Trust4Future’s target audience.
With over 20 years’ experience with EU projects, TAGES has established good connections with colleagues, organisations, and universities throughout Europe and have good relations with several associations in Türkiye.
Gonca said: “We are trying to do something new with better techniques, so not only will we provide online programmes, but there will also be opportunities for hands on experiences. The full team is excellent, academic excellence and original content will come from Prof. Bill Buchanan and his team at Edinburgh Napier University, Istanbul Blockchain Women will lead community engagement and education, and TAGES will lead innovation and sustainability in the programme’s technical coordination and commercialisation.”
Stay tuned for the publication of the course on our platform!
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