The third meeting on the state of science and technology of the Foresight Council of the Academy on "Patterns and methods suitable for futurism in Iran", was held on October 31st.
Chaired by Prof. Moztarzadeh, the meeting was attended by a number of members of the Academy, university professors and students.
At the beginning, Prof. Moztarzadeh presented a detailed report on the objectives, job descriptions, actions taken and ongoing activities of the Secretariat of the Foresight Council, and conventional foresight methods in developed countries. He stated that for futurism, we need accurate and reliable statistics and reports on the current state of science and technology.
After discussion and exchange of views, the following items were recommended:
- Strengthening the futurism movement in Iran, identifying individuals and experts, access to reliable statistics, applied research and the need to define research and dissertations in universities and institutions in order to solve the country's problems in the fields of water, energy, politics, health and ... in the short, mid and long terms
- The need to support the community for the acceptability, inclusion and implementation of futurism, having financial resources, increasing the share of research in Gross Domestic Product and planning for the future based on feasible research projects
- The need to go through details and achieve special generalizations
Then, considering the importance of being familiar with the past and present in future research, four scenarios for understanding the state of science in Iran (past, present and future) were proposed:
1- Conducting independent research in the Academy
2- Meta-analysis on the accomplished researches
3- Inviting relevant scientific institutions
4- Establishing a scientific observation center in the Academy.
At the end, considering that the Academy is the essence of the country's knowledge and has a decisive and important role in creating a proper culture in the future, the need to create an atmosphere of acceptance for foresight in people and institutions for the future of Iran was emphasized.
