TEHRAN – The National Technology Award, known as NEXT, is scheduled to be held on February 19 and 20 in the city of Isfahan with the theme ‘advanced Iran with emerging technologies’

The event provides a great opportunity for leading companies, laying the basis for talented youth to become more active in the innovation and technology sector of the country, IRNA quoted Saeed Sarkar, an official with the vice-presidency for science and technology, as saying.

According to Sarkar, 22 innovative projects in three main fields including advanced materials and manufacturing technologies (seven out of fifty-three submitted projects); optics, quantum, and microelectronic technologies (eight out of thirty-one presented projects) and biotechnology and precision medicine (seven out of fifty-one submitted projects) were selected for the final stage of the second edition of the national award, IRNA reported.

The main objectives of the event include expanding research and development initiatives and focusing on leading and advanced technologies.

NEXT also aims to converge technologies to address economic, social, and environmental challenges; support the development of technology companies; encourage industries and large companies to use emerging technologies; and promote synergy, joint production, and competition among the country’s technologists. 

Iran moves up in GII 2024 ranking

According to the 2024 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) report, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ranking in knowledge and technology output, as well as business sophistication has improved from 55 and 117 in 2023 to 49 and 110 in 2024, respectively.

Also, the country’s ranking in market sophistication and infrastructure has risen by two positions from 19 and 97 in 2023 to 17 and 95 in 2024.

The Global Innovation Index ranks the world’s leading economies according to their innovation capabilities.

According to this year’s report, Iran ranks second among the countries of the Central and Southern Asian region, unchanged compared with the last two years.

India and Kazakhstan ranked first and third, respectively.

Iran ranks 5 among the 38 lower-middle-income group economies, which has improved compared to the 2023 ranking (6).

As stated in the 2024 edition, over the past four years (2020-2024), the statistical confidence interval for the ranking of Iran in the GII 2024 is between ranks 56 and 80.

Iran performed better in innovation outputs (48) than in innovation inputs (85) in 2024.

Published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the report ranks Iran first in Market capitalization, and Trademarks by origin.

It ranks 3, 5, 8, 17, 19, 23, and 35 in Software spending, Gross capital formation, Graduates in science and engineering, market sophistication, Domestic market scale, Intangible asset intensity, and Tertiary education, respectively.

Iran (Islamic Republic of) ranks highest in Market sophistication (17), Knowledge and technology outputs (49), Creative outputs (52), and Human capital and research (64).

The GII has ranked Tehran as the world’s 38th–largest science and technology (S&T) cluster this year, down from 35 last year, according to a report released on Tuesday by the UN’s WIPO.

MT/MG