The science and technology exchange program (STEP) in Islamic countries is held every year on one of the Islamic countries by the Mustafa Prize Foundation and with the cooperation of the top universities of the Islamic world.

According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, before holding the first round of the Mustafa Prize, the science and technology exchange program (STEP) in Islamic countries was put on the agenda of the foundation to realize its goals in creating a space of cooperation and interaction between the specialists and scientists of the Islamic countries.

In addition to creating science and technology discourse and developing the network of scientists of the Islamic world, this project aimed to lay the foundation for creating synergy and developing scientific cooperation, preparing the condition for scientific and technological activities in member countries of the organization of Islamic cooperation.

Moreover, the Mustafa Prize Association financially supports the areas of applied research and connecting the researchers and professors of the Islamic world to the network of prominent scientists to strengthen the scientific interactions at the international level.

The second step in holding STEP meetings is cooperation with University Putra Malaysia (UPM) and collaboration with science cultural center and young scientist network of Malaysia.

This meeting was held by professor Omar Yaghi, the instructor and main lecturer, and professor Jackie Ying. In total, 200 faculty members and researchers from host country and 26 prominent scientists in the field of nanotechnology from 12 countries of Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey attended the event.

In this meeting, in addition to strengthening and developing the network of scientists in the Islamic world, a great opportunity was made to create the space of cooperation. In this meeting, some areas of cooperation were discussed and evaluated by the members, including joint science projects, cooperation in publishing scientific articles in international valid publications and using the executive experiences of other countries.

The third round of STEP meeting was held along with giving the second Mustafa Prize in various universities of Iran. In this round of STEP meetings, more than 90 scientists from 26 countries exchanged opinions in eight top universities of Iran regarding the growing trend of science and technology in the Islamic world.

The fourth round of STEP meetings will be held in Sultan Qaboos University of Oman in the current year. This meeting will be held in four consecutive days in the presence of top scientists of the Mustafa Prize, as well as top scientists and researchers of the Islamic world in three areas of energy, water and health.

The Mustafa Prize, the high sign of science and technology in the Islamic world, is given to the top researcher and scientists of the Islamic world every two years. The Mustafa Prize recognizes, introduces and awards the top science and technology works in the Islamic world, promoting science learning and research in Islamic societies. According to the executive document of the Mustafa Prize, Sorena Sattari (the vice president for science and technology affairs) and Mahdi Safarinia (president of the Pardis Technology Park) are the head and secretary of policy-making council, respectively.