According to estimates, the total value of the photonics market in the world was reported at $500 billion in 2017. According to the Official statistics of the European Union, more than 300,000 people have been employed by more than 5,000 small and medium-sized enterprises of this field just on Europe. On the other hand, the global bank’s statistics have demonstrated that the pace of increase in this industry’s value is higher than the mean pace of increase in global GDP. The photonic technology is classified among the six technology empowering areas in Europe. This area has been allocated the most leverage-type effect on the growth of other technologies in EU studies. Photonics has extensive applications in areas such as communications (making the optical networks faster, more transparent, and more dynamic and expanding the communications market), industrial design and production (cutting, engraving, layering, material processing, and incremental manufacturing), medicine (pre-clinical research, oncology, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases, imaging and neuroleptic monitoring), energy field (photovoltaics), education and research (measurement and scanning) as a key technology empowering other technologies. In addition, advanced materials are the key to technology development and wealth creation in countries. The area of advanced materials technologies includes metals, ceramics, polymers, and advanced composites, and manufacturing processes. The development of most advanced technologies (e.g., aerospace, renewable energies, microelectronics, and biotechnology) depends on the availability of advanced materials and related technologies. A look at the country's past constraints in achieving some of these materials clearly shows the fundamental importance of this area. Investing in advanced materials, especially in the field of photonics and advanced materials in the country, requires high amounts of fixed capital and technology transfer to the country. Given the importance of this topics and efforts made by the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, two “laser, photonics, and micron structures technologies development headquarter” and “advanced materials and construction technologies development headquarter” were established in January 2015 and June 2016 with the aim of organizing, helping to promote the status of production, commercialize, and develop the technology and infrastructures related to these two major areas. Over three years of activity, these two headquarters formed various working groups and made extensive attempts to achieve scientific authority in the country, create the national strategic infrastructures in specific regions, promote the culture of science, technology and entrepreneurship, facilitate international scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges, develop strategic technologies proportional to the country’s needs, improve technology in the existing industries, develop new knowledge-based businesses, and expand the market for knowledge-based products in specialized fields in line with attention to the existing resources.

Some of the actions performed by these headquarters included supporting the projects for development of technology of knowledge-based companies with regard to domestic needs and requirements, supporting holding meetings, panels, seminars, national and international educational courses, exhibitions, and conferences at the level of school and university students, managers and industry, designing the draft of roadmaps and documents in the relevant field and following up their approval by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, designing the draft of the national roadmap for development of 3D printing technology and industry of Iran, following up the preliminaries for establishment of science association, supporting the establishment and equipping of the institution, creating and developing the network of interactions, communications and technical cooperation at the domestic and international levels, inviting international science and technology centers to travel to Iran and participate in relevant domestic events and programs, recognizing and attracting the prominent academic elites and non-resident elites, and defining and supporting joint technology exchange projects. Employing the new policies of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, these headquarters were integrated in November 2018, and the lasers, photonics, advanced materials, and manufacturing technologies development headquarter was appointed the responsibility of policy-making and coordinating to develop technology in these two strategies areas in the country.