Iran: The positive experience of S&T development

Abstract

The article analyzes S&T development of Iran. One of the main characteristics of the Iranian S&T sector during the last two decades has been a rapid growth of scientific publications in number, and an improvement of the published works' quality despite international sanctions and economic situation in the country. To explain this growth, the authors first examine Iranian science policies (the so-called “S&T jihad”) and compare them with the Russian case. Unlike in Russia, the Iranian S&T sector relies heavily on universities, not on academic research organizations. In recent years, the Iranian S&T policy has been focusing on connecting technology development and economic welfare, building innovation infrastructure and supporting application of scientific discoveries in product and process innovations. Focus on engineering sciences has helped to develop the Iranian S&T sector. Given the restrictions on the technology and equipment import, the country managed to form not only a supply of technologies (mainly generated by universities), but also a steady demand for them from the real sector. International sanctions have had a rather contradictory impact on Iran's international scientific and technical cooperation. As statistics show, cooperation measured by the number of joint publications of Iranian and foreign researchers is strengthening year by year. At the same time, at the level of technological exchange, the destructive impact of the sanctions constraints is heavy, but the trends of recent years indicate the prospects of easing these prohibitions. The analysis shows that the scientific and technological breakthrough is quite feasible even with very modest starting positions and constantly increasing sanctions pressure. Russia and Iran are very similar in a number of economic aspects, therefore, the Iranian experience is extremely useful for adjusting the S&T policy in Russia.