TEHRAN – Knowledge-based companies benefited from the expertise and knowledge of more than 130 Iranian specialists abroad over the current [Iranian calendar] year (began on March 21, 2021).

One of the projects considered in the program of cooperation with Iranian specialists and entrepreneurs abroad is the use of Iranian graduates, specialists, entrepreneurs, and professors abroad who do not reside in Iran or have been working abroad for at least a year, in technology and innovation ecosystem.

This year, as part of a plan to support employment, more than 130 expat elites are attracted to technological fields such as IT, nanotechnology, biotechnology, medicine, and stem cells in knowledge-based and creative companies.

According to the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, in this program, conditions are provided for these people to start their cooperation by working in technological firms, innovation centers, and accelerators as trainers, consultants in the field of research and development.

This will help Iranian elites abroad to transfer their new skills, methods and capabilities of services to the country and provide the conditions for using their scientific capacity of them in the scientific, technological, and industrial centers of the country. 

Top researchers, students back home 

About 500 Iranian researchers have returned home over the past four years to transfer their knowledge and expertise to the country's universities, according to the vice presidency for science and technology.

With the support of the National Elites Foundation and Science and Technology Vice Presidency, universities, knowledge enterprises, technology parks, and incubators launched a plan titled ‘cooperation with Iranian expatriate entrepreneurs and elite’ in 2015.

The plan aims to attract Iranians abroad to share knowledge in different forms including postdoctoral research, research opportunity, and visiting fellows, in addition to being faculty members.

So far, it has attracted more than 500 prominent Iranian researchers living in other countries as faculty members of the country's top universities, which has had a significant impact on raising the quality of research, educational and international activities of universities.

Iran also implemented a plan to return elites from the top 100 universities in the world, through the national model, the facilities are provided for their return, by creating technology parks, innovation centers, and factories.

The plan was able to bring back 2,000 Iranian students from the top 100 universities in the world over a three-year period, amounting to 600 people a year.

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