Scientific recession in the shadow of old equipment; Universities are waiting for the Development Fund – | Iranian and world news

According to the Mehr reporter, laboratory equipment and research infrastructure play a vital role in advancing scientific research, and without proper devices and infrastructure, it is not possible to conduct accurate and reliable tests and can even reduce data quality in research. Equipped laboratories can also attract researchers, develop scientific partnerships and specialist training.

In recent years, Iranian universities and institutes have faced challenges in laboratory infrastructure. One of the most important problems is the lack of funding to repair and equip laboratories. Due to the problems caused by inflation and the devaluation of the national currency, the sums allocated to the annual budget for this issue do not meet the needs of universities to provide new and up -to -date equipment. On the other hand, existing equipment burnout also creates new restrictions.

In March 2008, the National Development Fund was licensed for laboratory equipment and research infrastructure. In the year after the allocation, the equivalent of € 5 million was set to pay the university’s debt to the databases, and the rest was distributed for equipment between universities and research institutes. However, it seems that these sums are not responsive to the problems, and universities are still struggling with the problems caused by equipment deficiencies.

According to Dr. Peyman Salehi; The Secretary -General of the High Council of Science, Research and Technology (Atef) and the Deputy Minister of Science, we sought the possibility of allocating new resources for the development of research infrastructure.

Follow -up to receive new sums from the National Development Fund

Speaking to a Mehr reporter about new sources from the National Development Fund, Dr. Peyman Salehi said: “There have been follow -up recently to attract resources from the National Development Fund.” The reason for the pursuit of attracting resources from the National Development Fund is that when the funding is passed in the budget law, it is not possible to interfere and increase the budget. The budget law is a budget that is going on in the country, and if we want to consider the budget for laboratory equipment besides the current budget of the country and the Ministry of Science’s budget, the only source is the National Development Fund.

He continued: Dr. Simaei Sarraf; The Minister of Science has made good follow -up. Correspondence has been made in this regard and reports have been written in writing and in person. We hope, as in the past two years when the follow -up has responded, we can still use the National Development Fund resources for equipment.

“The number of articles in the country was more than year 6, but we have to go with the slightest that our competing countries are progressing,” said Atef’s High Council Secretary General. We did not drop in terms of article, but our rank has declined.

Laboratory equipment burnout; One of the reasons for the country’s scientific stagnation

He emphasized that one of the most important factors in the scientific recession and the failure to improve the country’s scientific rank is the weakness of laboratory and research infrastructure, adding that part of this weakness is fundamental and in some other sectors there is advanced equipment but worn out.

Salehi; The last two years, the amount devoted from the National Development Fund to this issue and injected into universities and research institutes was helpful, but it was not high.

Without some laboratory equipment we cannot publish articles

The Deputy Minister of Science Research pointed out the importance of infrastructure and laboratory equipment in publishing scientific articles: Today, if there are no equipment in our laboratories, we cannot publish an article at all. Due to the rigor, international journals are reluctant to publish research articles with old equipment. So this has been one of the causes of the country’s scientific downturn in recent years.

Lack of proper infrastructure discourages researchers

“Sometimes the lack of proper research infrastructure may be discouraging for researchers,” he said. We have great researchers who work in Iran with all restrictions; But when they do not have the right equipment, they may be attracted to far -fetched countries that provide them with good equipment and they can do their research work.

“One solution we are considering for this problem is that we are trying to share laboratory equipment with friendly and neighboring countries,” Salehi said. In our part we have good equipment and in some parts they have good equipment; However, when the access to the equipment is high, the research speed will slow down.

We are not in good shape in the teaching laboratories.

In response to how much the National Development Fund is needed to equip the laboratory and supply research infrastructure “Our need is not restricted because our universities have been facing this problem for years,” he said.

The Secretary -General of the High Council of Atef pointed out the importance of educational laboratories: In addition to the problem of research laboratories, our educational laboratories, where students are trained, are also not well -equipped in terms of equipment. So the budgets must first be spent on research, but there should be a special look at educational laboratories.