Iranian Defense Ministry, Universities Working on over 1,000 Joint Projects

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said his ministry is working on more than 1,000 joint projects with the country’s academic centers.

“At present, over 1,000 projects in different defense fields are underway in cooperation with universities,” Vahidi said at a meeting with the deans and professors of Ferdowsi University in Iran’s Northeastern city of Mashhad on Tuesday.

He voiced pleasure in the growing trend of the defense ministry’s interaction and cooperation with different Iranian universities, saying that the two sides’ joint projects and cooperation have added to the country’s might and power.

He further hailed the design, production and launch of three Iran-made satellites as a product of the same cooperation between his ministry’s Aerospace Industries Organization and academic centers.

In relevant remarks in October, Iranian Minister of Science, Research and Technology Kamran Daneshjou underlined the key role of Iran’s academic centers in strengthening the country’s capability in defense fields, and said that half of the researches carried out at Iran’s academic centers are aimed at increasing the country’s defense capabilities.

Daneshjou stated that 50% of academic researches in Iran concentrate on boosting the country’s defensive capabilities.

He added that 200 defense projects had till then been implemented in the form of 1,000 university dissertations and theses.

Tehran launched an arms development program during the 1980-88 Iraqi imposed war on Iran to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and fighter planes.

Yet, Iranian officials have always stressed that the country’s military and arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.

Iran has also made huge achievements in various fields of science and technology, from nuclear knowledge to stem cell and Nanotechnology.

In a most recent case, Iranian Health Minister Marziyeh Vahid Dastjerdi announced last month that the country would soon start production of 15 types of anti-cancer drugs.

“15 types of monoclonal anti-body drugs are being synthesized with the help of the Scientific Department of the Presidential Office, using hi-tech technology,” Vahid Dastjerdi said.