Asian nano forum starts with Iran\'s proposals

The 8th Asia Nano Forum (ANF) meeting kicked off its work in Tehran on Sunday, with Sa\'eed Sarkar, the secretary of Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council, presenting Iran\'s proposals to improve cooperation among the ANF member states. In this summit, the members presented a report on the achievements of their countries in the last year, and they discussed the objectives and programs of the forum in the coming year. At the beginning of the summit, Dr. Sarkar presented a report on Iran\'s activities in the field of nanotechnology in the last year. In addition to presenting statistics about the production of science and technology in the Asian countries, he proposed a number of suggestions in order to improve the cooperation between ANF member countries. According to the statistics presented in today\'s summit, the Asian countries have produced 46.7% of the production of science in the world in 2011, and this percentage indicates Asia\'s rank in this regard. By possessing the highest number of citations to the papers among the Asian countries, Singapore produces the highest-quality papers. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China have desirable positions in nanotechnology patent registrations in the European countries (EPO) and the United States (USPTO). He pointed to the weak scientific cooperation between ANF member countries, and presented a number of suggestions in order to increase such cooperation. According to him, even today it is too late for the beginning of the cooperation. Among Iran\'s suggestions for the cooperation of member countries, mention can be made of the organization of annual conferences between the member countries, the organization of scientific workshops and summer schools in the member countries, joint investment in the field of nanotechnology research and development, and university student exchange in the form of postdoctoral research. Iran also proposed organization of nanosciences and technology Olympiads for students in the member countries, which was welcomed warmly by the members.