TEHRAN – The national award on innovative solutions for challenges faced by children and adolescents during COVID-19 announced three winners on Thursday.

Tiled “National Innovation Award for Children during COVID-19”, the joint initiative by the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology and UNICEF Iran Office, was designed to promote the culture of innovations for children in Iran.

The closing ceremony of the award was attended by Vice President for Science and Technology Sourena Sattari, and UNICEF Representative in Iran Mandeep O'Brien.

Some 80 innovative designs were submitted by knowledge-based and creative companies, and the top three winners were honored at the event. And seven solutions were recognized as worthy of appreciation.

The program aimed at developing solutions in education, nutrition, hygiene, physical and mental health, protection, economy and environment, culture, and entertainment, and sports in light of the challenges accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The solutions may include accessible and inclusive e-learning platforms, digital health systems, protecting children against cyberbullying, skill-building solutions for adolescents, innovative nudges, frugal and social innovations among other solutions using basic and emerging technologies.

The best solutions will benefit from technical and financial support from the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology as well as from technical support from UNICEF Iran so that they can be applied and effectively support children in Iran.

Iran 4th in West Asia for innovation

Iran has ranked 60th in the world and 4th in West Asia in the 2021 Global Innovation Index which analyzes dozens of criteria using seven equally weighted metrics, including research and development spending, manufacturing capability, and concentration of high-tech public companies.

The 2021 rankings reflect a world where the fight against COVID-19 has brought innovation to the fore - from government efforts to contain the pandemic, to the digital infrastructure that’s allowed economies to work through it, and the race to develop vaccines that can end it.

Iran also ranked 43rd among the 100 most vibrant clusters of science and technology (S&T) worldwide for the third consecutive year, according to the Global Innovation Index 2020 report.

The total ranking of Iran was 67 in the GII 2020 report, which was 61 in 2019.

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