Prof. Dr. ÖZGÜN ERLER BAYIR

Özgün Erler Bayır is a professor of international relations and department chair of International Relations at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Istanbul University. She has been awarded the Republic of Poland’s “Bene Merito Honorary Distinction”, in 2026.

She is the NATO Country Project Director of “AI-Based Behavioural Risk Analysis for Space Situational Awareness” (GUARDIAN) which is the space security project, funded by the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme Multi-Year Projects, implementing between 2026 and 2029. https://guardian.ulb.be/

She is an expert on Poland's foreign and security policy, European studies, diplomacy, space diplomacy, space policy and governance, digital diplomacy, science diplomacy. She has extensive experience in international research project management and coordination, curriculum development, distance learning, digital skills and technology in international relations.

Her Ph.D. thesis is titled “Dilemma between Atlanticism and Europeanization in Poland’s Foreign Policy” (2011). She was the Coordinator of the Erasmus+ KA220-HED project titled "Digital Diplomacy: Building the Common Future with Technology" (DD-TECH) between the years 2022-2025. Besides, she was the Project Coordinator of "Youth Vision for the Future of Turkey-NATO Relations (YouthenNATO)", NATO Public Diplomacy Division Grants in 2022. Her second NATO Public Diplomacy Division’s Grant was for the project titled “Learn to Unite: Simulation-based Learning to Unite Against NATO’s Emerging Challenges” in 2023. She was also the Project Manager of TÜBİTAK 3005 - Support Program for Innovative Solutions Research Project in Social Sciences titled "Reconciling Social Sciences and Space: Shaping the Future with an Interdisciplinary Perspective to the New Space Ecosystem" (2022-2024). This project was completed in December 2024.

She has conducted two Jean Monnet Modules; “COPFUTUREU - Challenges and Opportunities for the Future of Europe” between 2023-2026, and “FUTUREU - Future of EU: Security, Economy and Transatlantic Relationship” between 2020-2023. She was the researcher of another public diplomacy project funded by the U.S. Embassy, Turkey and titled “Make Information True Again (MITA): Reinforcing Democratic Values to Foster U.S-Turkey Relations” (2022-2024). She has been a project researcher and lecturer in the Jean Monnet Module titled “EU-GlobalDigi: EU as Global Digital Actor”, coordinating at the University of Bucharest, Romania, between 2024 and 2027. Recently, she completed a project granted by NATO - Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme, titled “The Evolution of Space for Security and Prosperity: Risks, Defence, and Cooperation”, conducted in partnership with the International Space University, France.  She has been a member of the Management Committee of Türkiye in the COST Action titled: Science in Diplomacy Network: implementing multilateral policymaking in intersectoral, cross-disciplinary & strategic domains (SiDnet) between 2025-2029.

She has published articles on several international relations issues in journals and two books. Her first book was published in 2012, titled “Dilemma between Atlanticism and Europeanization in Poland’s Foreign Policy”, and her second book was published in 2023, titled “New-New Diplomacy”. In addition, she teaches several undergraduate and postgraduate courses; some of them are on Digital Diplomacy, Space Diplomacy, Project Management, EU Studies, Introduction to IR, Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis, Foreign Policy Analysis, Turkey and EU Relations, Security Studies, Polish Foreign Policy.

Özgün Erler Bayır is the Director of Istanbul University, Centre for Global Politics and Administration Practice and Research and an executive member of Istanbul University, Board of Science and Research Policies. Since February 2025, she is the Chair of the Ethics Committee for Social and Human Sciences Research at Istanbul University.