TEHRAN – Iran and China are currently developing scientific and research cooperation in three ways, Mehr reported on Monday.

Joint scientific and technological collaborations between Iranian researchers and other countries are developing every day. Scientific interaction with Chinese researchers is an example of such collaboration.

The Vice Presidency for Science and Technology has always considered the development of international scientific and academic relations.

Cooperation has been developed with three Chinese organizations, including the Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Over the past six years, the Research and Technology Support Fund has partnered with the Chinese Academy of Sciences through the publication of a call for funding from the Silk Road Science Fund.

So far, 6 joint calls have been published. Accordingly, the fund and the academy will support a maximum of three joint projects between Iranian and Chinese researchers.

This call is announced and implemented in line with joint research activities between Iranian researchers and researchers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the form of "joint research and development projects" and "joint workshops".

In cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, 10 studies between researchers from the two countries are supported.

The first collaboration between Iran and the National Natural Science Foundation of China took place this year. Accordingly, 15 joint projects between researchers from the two countries are to be supported for implementation. These are joint research projects in the three disciplines of life sciences, materials sciences, and mathematics.

Iranian knowledge-based firms

The Innovation and Prosperity Fund affiliated with the Vice Presidency of Science and Technology has earmarked a sum of 170 trillion rials (nearly $4 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials) to support knowledge-based companies over the past 4 years.

There are currently 6,263 knowledge-based companies operating in the country, offering advanced products and services in various fields of technology to domestic and foreign markets, and some of them have entered international markets, Siavash Maleki, deputy head of the Fund stated.

The fields of aircraft maintenance, steel, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment, oil, and gas are among the sectors that researchers in technology companies have engaged in, leading to import reduction.

FB/MG