Educational Research Fund Up 32%

About 52.12 billion rials have been allocated for educational research in the current Iranian year (started March 21).

Speaking in a conference held to honor designers of electronic products in West Azarbaijan province, Majid Qadami, the head of Education Ministry’s Research Center, stated that the figure shows an increase of 32 percent compared with the corresponding figure of last year.

The official said research is a major infrastructural component of educational development, for which it is important to identify outstanding students and teachers in schools and scientific centers.

Qadami emphasized the necessity of using the capabilities of elites and exemplary personalities, pointing out that the center has been established to support research activities.

“More than 50,000 research plans have been implemented by teachers in the last academic year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ali Asghar Tofiq, the head of Iran’s Materials and Energy Research Center said that according to the 2011 report of Scimago Institutions Rankings (SIR), the research body is one of the world’s top research institutions, IRNA reported.

The center is affiliated to Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology.
SIR has listed the Iranian center after evaluating the performance of 39 Iranian universities and research centers. The research center has presented 353 articles in recent years.

Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, with an open mind, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method.