The president of Iran National Science Foundation announced the increase in the maximum support of research projects and PhD dissertations by the fund, stating: we will more effectively support our researchers by applying this feature.

According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, Iman Eftehkari, the president of Iran National Science Foundation expressed about changes in the plans of the fund since the beginning of the year: the policies of the fund regarding optimal support allocation have undergone some changes. Currently, proper and independent planning is being developed in various disciplines of science within the budget framework approved by the Fund"s specialized committee for each task force so that the working groups could have more optimal and appropriate support for their respective disciplines.

Pointing out the division of the fund’s plans into two general sections, Eftekhari affirmed: one of these sections is comprehensive plans such as support of research projects, as well as PhD and post-doctoral dissertations, which are extensive in terms of number and geographical extent. The second section includes programs that support a specific group of researchers in a targeted manner.

Regarding changes in the comprehensive programs of the fund in this year, he mentioned: from now on, research projects, doctoral dissertations and post-doctoral requests will be carried out by distribution of calls.

This lays the foundation for comparing of different projects, creating equilibrium among various scientific fields and better planning. The first call for research projects has been published in most working groups. In addition, the call for support of post-doctoral projects will be published at the end of August.  

The president of Iran National Science Foundation also mentioned: we have specific targeted programs in the second part of our plans and we have added some activities in this regard. Applying this approach, we can extend the direction of international scientific and technological cooperation with Eastern countries. To this end, the first joint call with the ministry of science and technology of China was published and the evaluation of delivered projects in-person is at the final stages. The second call of the area has been recently published in the form of the call of Silk Road fund. Both of these programs will develop interactions with China in the field of science and technology. In addition, a joint call will be soon published with Russia.