TEHRAN, May 17 (MNA) – Head of Iran's Materials and Energy Center (MERC) announced on Sunday that Iran and Turkey are to jointly start designing, manufacturing and testing of new wind turbine blades.

As Alireza Khavandi said, under the framework of Iran-Turkey research projects, titled as TUBITAK-MSRT Joint Call 2020, and out of 164 proposed projects, the two sides are to cooperate on 22 joint projects within the next two years, among which stands manufacturing of wind turbine blades.

The project will be jointly implemented by the Middle East Technical University of Turkey and MERC and will be observed by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) and the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology.

In 1971, MERC started its research activities in the fields of Materials Engineering, Renewable Energies, Semiconductor Technologies and Environmental Issues. Since then, it has developed extensive collaborations with National and International Universities and Industrial Research Institutes in recent years.

MERC laboratories with wide space, advanced equipment and expertise and trained personnel have a great potential for the reception of many researchers and students for implementing independent and/or joint research projects as well as education of students.  This caused the formation of a close and continuous interaction between researchers, faculty members and students on one hand, and universities, scientific centers and important industrial agencies on the other hand. This close cooperation led to the execution of many important pure and applied research projects which have effectively turned MERC into one of the country's pivotal research institutes.

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