TEHRAN – Innovation factories will be established in five Iranian cities of Mashhad, Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz and Yazd in the near future, the head of the Strategic Technologies Center announced, Mehr reported on Sunday.

Innovation factory is a platform that efficiently connects people, knowledge and ideas and at the same time encourages collaboration and innovation. Organizational issues are presented as ‘idea challenges’. Inspiring and motivational assignments like these encourage people to share and elaborate ideas. It allows you to utilize collective knowledge and it increases employee engagement.

Esmaeil Qaderifar said that some Iranian metropolitans plan to establish innovation factories in order to diversify the national innovation ecosystem.

In Mashhad, an old abandoned factory is turning into an innovation factory. The place is now under construction and will probably open during the Iranian calendar month Shahrivar (August 23-September 22), he explained.

The vice presidency for science and technology supports the innovation factories, however they are completely private and will be run by private accelerators, he added.

The center is affiliated to the vice presidency for science and technology.

The innovation factories focus on the regional and local priorities and based their activities on them, he said.

Mashhad, as a religious city, focuses on the pilgrimage, souvenir and creative industry for innovation, he explained.

“We plan to sign an agreement in Shiraz during next week in order to break the ground for establishment of an 18,000-meter factory,” he added.

The innovation factories in Yazd and Isfahan are also placed in abandoned factories, he added.

He said that the municipality, governorship and the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development are responsible for establishment of the innovation factories.

The innovation centers are also very important in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, Qaderifar announced.

In Tabriz, two innovation centers are established at the University of Tabriz and Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in next month, he said.

In late February, the vice president for science and technology Sourena Sattari announced the first innovation factory of the country will start running in Tehran in the Iranian calendar month Ordibehesht (April 21-May 21).

Over 3,500 young entrepreneurs with over 10 accelerator centers in different fields will begin their activity in the innovation factory, he said.

SB/MQ/MG