TEHRAN – Although Iran’s Nanotechnology Initiative Council has been established not very long time ago (2003), it has gained several achievements in this field so far, First Vice-President Es'haq Jahangiri said on Monday.

Iranian researchers have published a considerable number of International Scientific Indexing (ISI) papers in the field of nanotechnology in recent years, he said.

According to the StatNano report published in January 2018, more than 154,000 nanotechnology related articles were indexed in Web of Science (WoS) in 2017 while more than 50% of them were published by China, the United States, and India. Iran and Korea are on the next ranks.

There is a small distance between Iran and advanced countries in the field of nanotechnology, he said.

“Hence we should do our best in development of science production, nanotechnology products and marketing,” he added.

“The government plans to support companies who are active in the field of nanotechnology and allocate budget for boosting nanotechnology in the country.”

ISNA reported in January that Iran’s first researches in this field started in 2000 and with publishing 9 articles, the country achieved the rank of 52 in that year.

The national nanotechnology development headquarters was established in 2005, with the aim of making policies, assessing achievements in field of nanotechnologies, raising public awareness about nanoscience, improving quality of life and creating lucrative markets.

Recognizing the great importance of nanotechnology, Iranians have had boosted researches in the field year on year.

There are 257 companies active in this field, 33 percent of which working on nanomaterials.

These companies have manufactured 376 different products using the nontechnology, showing that this is a field with huge economic and practical advantages.

These products are exported to 47 different countries.

SB/MQ/MG