The Vice Presidency of Science and Technology is a fledgling institution to promote national authority, wealth creation, and improving the quality of life of the people by increasing the capabilities of technology and innovation in the country and promoting the "National Innovation System" and completing its components.

 Other goals in the establishment of this institution such as the development of a "knowledge-based economy" through coordination and synergy between sectoral and inter-institutional, promoting the relationship of "knowledge" with "industry" and "society", facilitating exchanges between supply and demand of technology and innovation Commercialization of technology achievements and innovation and development of knowledge-based companies have also been designed. To achieve the above goals and meet the needs of society, several tasks have been considered for this Vice-Presidency.

 "Creative companies and cultural industries and soft technologies" is one of the topics that has recently been considered and supported by the Vice-Presidency of Science and Technology. To get acquainted with the activities and importance of these companies and how to support them, with Parviz Karami, Advisor to the Vice-President of Science and Technology, Head of Science, Technology and Knowledge Economy Development Headquarters, and Head of the Communication and Information Center in the Vice Presidency of Science and Technology We have talked about a republic. You can read the details of this conversation below:

What do you mean by creative companies and cultural industries and soft technologies?

As Vice Presidency of Science and Technology, in addition to supporting knowledge frontier research, we also look at the issue of technology commercialization. There are two main branches to this issue. One of the establishment and support of knowledge-based companies, which according to this function, currently 5600 knowledge-based companies are operating in various fields in the country. At the same time, these companies operate in the heart of an ecosystem in which structures have been formed to support them. 

 * What kind of support is given to these companies now?

By law, 120 sponsorships include knowledge-based companies. Such as empowerment, legal protections, consulting, financial incentives, but in the case of cultural companies, 60 to 70 percent of these sponsorships are also included in these companies. Foreign, financial facilities, and advertising and promotional support include creative companies and cultural industries.

* What has been the result of this support?

  In companies and cultural industries, so far we have been mainly person-centered and artist-centric. That is, for example, an artist master in any field, in a small workshop, while teaching a number of his students, earns money by using his art, but the Vice-Presidency of Science and Technology tries to create an ecosystem and ecosystem. Form a chain to support cultural industries. A chain in which accelerators, innovation centers, and VCs are present.

 * One of the problems we face is that when the government intervenes in any matter as a supporter, this support enters into a complex bureaucracy and causes these companies to fail. What steps has the Vice-Presidency of Science and Technology taken to get the private sector involved in the process of supporting knowledge-based companies?

Governments around the world have a "facilitating" role in supporting the technology and innovation system. That is, they should only provide a platform that leads to the empowerment of science and technology companies. For this reason, the Vice Presidency of Science and Technology mainly supports private sector companies. Therefore, the government has created an innovation and prosperity fund with a turnover of 3,000 billion tomans to support VCs. The fund pays up to 9 times as much for each income the VC brings. Despite the Fund for Research and Technology and Innovation and Prosperity, the government has its contributions and has no problem supporting them. Because the government has no problem with the number of companies that apply for financial aid and have the necessary indicators.

 * One of the effective factors of development in the country is the issue of culture as a scientific and technological infrastructure. That is, we will not succeed in other areas unless we are strengthened in the humanities. What steps have you taken in the field of cultural companies to solve this problem?

One of our problems in the field of corporate law is that many humanities and arts companies were not subject to knowledge-based companies according to the law. After the pathology of this issue, the Vice Presidency of Science and Technology also implemented a program for the ecological development of the creative cultural industries. Currently, according to our research, 1240 companies have qualified to enter the creative cultural industries, which are mainly in the field of humanities. These companies can enter the fields of polling, mathematical, and computer science calculations to meet the needs of society and the humanities. We should strive for 50% of the output of our universities, which are in the field of humanities and arts, to be strong and equipped in the field of innovative activities.

* One of the problems of government work, for example in the research sector, is that we have thousands of research centers that are not related to each other and despite their heavy financial costs, the result of this research does not benefit the country. What have you thought about this?

I agree with you that, of course, research is successful only when public-sponsored government research is fruitful. They usually do not have that much, but successful research that has the support of the private sector. The commercialization of science in the private sector is also often successful. No public company or university can have a proper commercialization product because they are far from the market. Universities must produce science, and private-sector science and technology parks must commercialize this science.

 * You are right in theory, but the reality is something else. If you look at the best-selling and successful films in the world, you will see that a group of people think to produce a film, but this is not the case in Iran. One of the duties for the Vice-Presidency of Science and Technology is to produce and launch this chain. For this reason, we only support creative ideas. Our country is an import-oriented country that is rich in proportion to its underground resources such as oil and raw materials, and has given and bought whatever it needs and has not thought of building it. To change this approach, we need a new ecosystem, whose job is to set up this ecosystem.

 * How successful have you been in achieving this goal?

We have been very successful. We now make 97% of the medicines we need. Because our biotechnology, technical, and medical ecosystems are well developed, we are second to none. Corona story When an epidemic broke out in the world last year, countries that had corona diagnostic kits, masks, ventilators, and other related equipment could not be sent to other countries, including our own country, which was also under sanctions.

In the field of "kit" and "ventilator", the same knowledge-based companies built this equipment. In the field of vaccine making, we have been making vaccines for a hundred years, of course, we bought the technology, but today we produced the "human flu" vaccine ourselves, which will be unveiled soon because the ecosystem and production chain of this vaccine was formed. But we have weaknesses in the field of creative and cultural industries and the necessary ecosystem has not been formed yet. We have now coordinated to establish a "creative house" in each province. We also defined several clusters, such as saffron clusters and medicinal plants, which can produce the active ingredient of many cosmetics industries.

 * The last word

Both the government and the parliament must support the formation of these chains. Of the $ 2.7 trillion in turnover of the creative industries in the world, $ 100 million is our share, while we should have a much larger share because these industries have a high potential for income and employment that can lead to economic prosperity and creative industries can transfer Give our culture and civilization to the world.

Report by the Communication and Information Center in the Vice Presidency of Science and Technology, quoted by the Etelaat Newspaper