Pursuant to the sealing on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on scientific and technological cooperation between Iran and Italy by the science ministers of the two countries in recent months, the first meeting of the joint committee was held chaired by Iran's deputy science minister for research and technology, Italy’s cultural and scientific attaché in Iran, as well as heads of a number of universities and higher education centers in Italy and Iran.
During the meeting the parties exchanged views regarding operational strategies for research and technology cooperation.
Vahid Ahmadi, Research and Technology Deputy of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, pointed to the Ministry’s plan to strengthen scientific ties with international universities in line with the country’s scientific diplomacy; “Iran and Italy are determined to increase scientific collaboration and the framework of partnership needs to be defined as soon as possible.”
Ahamadi further enumerated possible venues for Iran’s cooperation with other countries including PhD student exchange, deploying doctoral students and faculty members on fellowships for carrying out joint research projects as well as collaboration between science and technology parks and knowledge-based firms.
Federico Cinquepalmi, Director of the office for promotion, planning and coordination of international research at Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, for his part, emphasized his country’s readiness to boost scientific ties with Iran highlighting the rich cultural heritage of the two sides as an important platform to elevate relevant cooperation.
“Iran and Italy had scientific and technological collaboration until 2007,” noted the Italian official asserting “at the moment, the most important aspect of the current meeting would be resumption of previous ties and trusting one another since relations can be reinvigorated in case of shared trust.”
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