According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, Nosratollah Zargham, head of the Iranian national science foundation, presented a short report on the activities and expansion of supports provided by the foundation in the third meeting with research seat owners, stating: more than 3700 projects were received in the first 10 months of the year 2017, which is indicative of a significant growth in this area, compared to 2016. In addition, publication of more than 2500 articles, technical knowledge, patent, book compilation, and sample product are just some of the achievements of research seats in the past few years.

Delivery of One Thousand and 75 Inventions to the Foundation

President of the Iranian national science foundation also expressed: about one thousand and 75 inventions have been received by the foundation, one-third of which are passing the registration process and 70 of them have been registered in America and 31% have been commercialized. Moreover, extensive effort is dedicated to the sale of patents.

According to Nosratollah, despite the allocation of 2% of the total research budget to this foundation, 18.29% of articles in the first quartet, five percent of the total ISI articles and more than a few percent of technical knowledge, book compilation and sample production and patent registration are the results of support provided by the foundation, which is the best supporter of research in Iran according to the opinion of Thomson Reuters.

Importance of Transformational Research

President of the Iranian national science foundation pointed out the importance of transformational research and presented a report on national science board (NSB) activities. In this regard, he affirmed: the science foundation of America supports single- and multi-disciplinary studies, services, equipment, research centers and research workshops. 

Zargham expressed about the support of high-risk research: such projects have very high risks and the foundation is not willing to participate in high-risk studies. This type of research has a high risk and challenges the current patterns and paradigms. The idea of transformational studies was first presented by NSB, which is one of the organizations of NSF. In fact, mission of NSF management and guidance is the mutual duty of NSF manager and science national council.

Challenge of Common Beliefs

In addition, president of the foundation mentioned the activities of seat owners, asserting: results of transformational research are not often presented in models and theories and their comprehension is difficult at first. The transformational nature of these results might not be comprehensible until a few years later.

Activity of a Transdisciplinary Workgroup in the Humanities Field

Regarding transdisciplinary research, Zargham pointed out: the transdisciplinary research approach might lead to transformational research. However, not all of this type of research is transformational. He mentioned the transdisciplinary workgroup in the technical engineering and medicine fields, which has been activated since one month ago, to be responsible for making the humanities field official so that some issues related to the society could be evaluated by the participation of the public.

The third meeting with research seat owners was held in the Iranian national science foundation in the presence of 30 seat holders. Some of the goals of this meeting include helping the strengthening and developing science, technology and innovation infrastructures in the country, exploitation of the minds and thought of seat holders and development of transformational research center. This event is held every three months.