Training, applied work, partnerships and outreach activities directed at producers, industry and society.
| 31external stakeholders on the Advisory Board | 11online training broadcasts | 30.914video views | 5project priority areas |
The most visible outcome of specialization is delivering knowledge directly to the producer. Since the end of 2023 the Coordination Office has been holding face-to-face farmer training sessions in villages, covering pruning, fertilisation, drying and pest control on site.
| Date | Training | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 29 December 2023 | Pruning and fertilisation training | Orhaniye |
| 3 May 2024 | Farmer training | Halkalı |
| 6 May 2024 | Hazelnut Training in High Schools — the first | Hamdi Bozbağ Anatolian High School |
| 25 September 2024 | Hazelnut drying training | Kavaklar |
| 21-25 Ekim 2024 | Certified Basic Training Programme in Modern Hazelnut Cultivation (five days, in cooperation with GUSEM) | Giresun |
| 20 June 2025 | Farmer training | Tepeören |
| 28 November 2025 | Training on controlling the brown marmorated stink bug and the big bud mite | Kovanlık |
| 18 December 2025 | Hazelnut Pruning Competition | Tirebolu |
| 27-29 Ocak 2026 | Project Writing Training for university–industry cooperation (TÜBİTAK 2237-B) | Giresun |
| 29 April 2026 | First hands-on training at the hazelnut processing facility | Güre Campus |
The Coordination Office also disseminates farmer training through its own broadcast channel. Hazelnut Specialization TV hosts training videos presented by faculty members who are experts in the field, together with full recordings of workshop sessions.
| Training video | Views |
|---|---|
| Hazelnut fertilisation training — Prof. Dr. Kürşat Korkmaz | 19.170 |
| Hazelnut pruning and fertilisation — Prof. Dr. Ali İslam | 3.942 |
| Controlling the brown marmorated stink bug — Prof. Dr. Ali Turan | 3.570 |
| Hazelnut pruning and fertilisation — Lecturer Dr. Mehmet Akgün | 2.105 |
| Hazelnut drying training — Prof. Dr. Ali Turan | 1.076 |
| Tissue culture training — Prof. Dr. Mahmut Sinan Taşpınar | 214 |
The channel also carries the full five-session recording of the Workshop on Setting a Roadmap for the Use of Artificial Intelligence and Technology in Hazelnut Farming. Total broadcast time exceeds six hours and total views exceed thirty thousand.
Thirty-one of the thirty-eight members of our Advisory Board are from outside the University. This structure shows that specialization is carried out together with the region’s production and governance actors.
| Field | Partner institutions |
|---|---|
| Research organisations | TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Centre · Hazelnut Research Institute · Black Sea Agricultural Research Institute · Marmara Teknokent |
| Development and public sector | Eastern Black Sea Development Agency · DOKAP · TKDK · Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry · Turkish Grain Board |
| Industry bodies | National Hazelnut Council · Fiskobirlik · Giresun Commodity Exchange · Chamber of Commerce and Industry · Chamber of Agriculture · Black Sea Exporters’ Association |
| Private sector | Yavuzkan Hazel Gıda · Gaffro Fındık · Karadere Tarım Ürünleri · Arslantürk Tarım Ürünleri · Gürsoy Fındık · Nestlé |
| International | FAO Representation in Türkiye · Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia · Agriculture University of Georgia · Embassy of Türkiye in Rome |
| Facility | Contribution to society |
|---|---|
| Hazelnut Processing Facility | The facility established on the Güre Campus is open to students’ hands-on training and to value-added product trials. Images of the facility |
| Tissue Culture Laboratory | The aim is to meet producers’ need for orchard renewal through certified sapling production. |
| Central Research Laboratory | Aflatoxin and fatty acid analyses are carried out on hazelnuts, meeting industry demand. |
Specialization has not been limited to research and producer training; it has also been carried into events attended by students and the wider public.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 27 June 2025 | Hazelnut was the subject of the first Science Café event, held simultaneously in eighty-one provinces under the coordination of the Council of Higher Education’s Science Communication Office. |
| 11 March 2026 | The Sustainable Agriculture and Entrepreneurship Panel was held in cooperation with Bulancak Vocational School, Nestlé and Foodback. |
| 11 May 2026 | Students of the GRU Hazelnut Society examined production processes on site at a hazelnut business in Görele. |
| 18-19 Ağustos 2026 | KÖYBİLİM — the Science and Nature Discoveries in Village Schools Project was completed under the TÜBİTAK 4009 Village Schools Support Programme. |
The Coordination Office prepares working documents on hazelnut problems and proposed solutions, carries out crop forecast studies and shares the findings with the public. The working document “Strategic Solution Proposals for Türkiye’s Hazelnut Problems” and the annually repeated crop forecast studies fall within this scope. The Digital Hazelnut Expert mobile application developed by our University aims to give producers direct access to information.