In a meeting attended by two dedicated representatives from the holy city of Qom in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Director General of the Qom Provincial Court of Audit, and the Secretary of the Court of Associates and Public Observers of Qom, as well as court associates, public observers, members of the Qom Issues Secretariat, and a number of media representatives held in the conference hall of the Qom Provincial Court of Audit, the President of Qom Industrial University was introduced as the senior advisor to the Qom Issues Secretariat.
In this session, Dr. Rezaei Nour referred to the statements of the Supreme Leader in the second step of the Islamic Revolution's statement, regarding the importance and status of science and research in the country's development process. He added that the approval of the extraordinary law for the leap in knowledge-based production is one of the significant actions at the national level concerning the importance of the position of science and applied research, and it is unparalleled globally.
Dr. Rezaei Nour further noted that a review of Article 93 of the Seventh Development Plan indicates that the issue of scientific authority and the internationalization of knowledge are among the main obligations for the next five years of the country's scientific institutions. An examination of the performance metrics detailed quantitatively in Article 93 of the Seventh Development Plan highlights this significance:
1. Iran's global rank in terms of the quantity of scientific production according to reputable international databases: 14
2. The country's rank in the world regarding the number of registered foreign patents: 50
3. The share of medium to high technology (high-tech) products in the gross domestic product: 7 percent
4. Innovation index rank: 42nd in the world
5. The number of foreign students (in-person and online): 320,000
6. The annual average of indexed articles in international citation databases per government academic staff: 1.5 articles per person
7. The percentage increase in Iranian journals indexed with quartile (Q) compared to the base year: 25 percent
8. The proportion of joint articles with foreign researchers to the total indexed Iranian articles in one of the scientific databases: 39 percent
9. Iranian universities ranked in one of the reputable international ranking systems below 500: 20 universities
10. International articles displayed in the World Islamic Science and Technology Citation and Monitoring Institute: 55,000 articles
11. The rank of exports of medium to high-tech products in the region: 2nd
Dr. Rezaei Nour, while recalling the Supreme Leader's statements in the second step regarding the position of science and research for self-building, social acceptance, and civilization-building, mentioned that the share of budgets for universities, research institutes, and science and technology parks from the total national budget is less than 4 percent. He noted that achieving the lofty goals outlined in the second step of the revolution and the seventh national development plan is very challenging with such resources, and thus requested the representatives of the holy city of Qom to provide special attention and assistance to scientific centers across the country, particularly looking kindly at Qom Industrial University to help resolve the issues of the province and the country.
