Conference News

The opening ceremony of The 10th International and The 14th National IRAMoT Conference began. The welcome speech, presented by The Scientific Committee Chairman of The Conference, Prof. Dr. Manouchehr Manteghi, pointed the burden of the business sector in the global uncertain environment. Dr Manteghi also brought up the significant upraising quantity and quality of the receiving papers, including those with industrial case studies.

The 14th IRAMOT Conference, which is known as one of the biggest gathering events for Iranian Technology and Innovation scholars and practitioners, is held as a virtual gathering due to the Covid-19 crises. It includes keynote speeches, workshops and panels; covering variety of industries including banking, biotechnology, social innovation, creative industries, as well as UI collaboration debates. It’s worth mentioning that the number of participators is significantly more than prior events, as expected.

• Professor Doctor Robert Phaal, the prominent scholar in the technology road mapping, currently Director of Research at Department of Engineering in University of Cambridge (STIM, CUED), elaborated developing a roadmap while timing is uncertain and unpredictable circumstance.
• He also mentioned the UNIDO’s road-mapping projects concerning Ebola virus epidemic on 2014, as an instance of rad-mapping on unstable times. Exposing this experience, he believes, can be of help for government strategies and planning efforts; since countries are facing somehow analogous standpoints.

• On the first day of the two-day event on the IRAMOT conference, CEO of the Fanap, gave a keynote speech sharing his experience on implementing innovation in the banking industry. He brought up the crucial task of the innovation in industries with the highest confrontation with everyday lives of citizens, in the chaotic situations and environments. Mr Javanmardi believes that the banking industry should be considered as a substantial executive infrastructure for the Iranian National Innovation Systems.

Dr Dehghani Firouzabadi, Vise-president for Research, Technology and Innovation at Iranian Azad University, gave a speech on the first day of IRAMOT’s annual conference. He brought the concern of empty-handed innovation and the crucial significance of serving small and family businesses.

Keynote speaker of The 14th National and 10th International Conference, also mentioned the urge to reducing supervising role of universities and value them more as facilitators; as a transforming step towards diminishing the authority of the government of managing universities.

Dr Simone Corsi, Lecturer in International Business, Strategy and Innovation at Loughborough University, gave an informative speech on “Lessons learned from England-leading programs on R&D partnership with China”. He emphasized on the topic of the UI collaboration as a lever to face Covid-19 Crisis and brought some case examples about the partnering British SMEs with Chinese Companies lead by Lancaster University and financed by British Government. This online speech was followed by a Q&A session in the end.

The first discussion panel, titled as “Banking Industry as a Developing Organ on Innovation Ecosystem” was conducted on the IRAMOT’s 10th International and 14th National Conference. Low risk-taking and high formality in the banking industry were mentioned as hindering qualities for taking innovative activities. In contrast, it was brought up that banking sector contains large enterprises which are capable of confronting complexity.

CEO and Chairperson of the Board of Reddal Inc., Pen Stenius, delivered a speech about the “Next excellence level and the role of universal alliances on technology development” during the IRAMOT’s 10th International conference Bringing up the effects of Covid-19 Crisis on economic and technological trends, he discussed its impacts on lifestyle and status quo. He also discussed Iranian potential policies facing Covid-19 Crisis.

On the first day of the IRAMOT’s 10th International Conference, Mr Merati, as a keynote speaker, shared his experiences on “Balanced Management of Innovation”. As a managing skill, he discussed that technology and research are not the only input for innovation and balancing soft skills, such as quality control, safety, purchases, CRM, etc, are all required.

Dr Darioush Rafinehad, gave a speech on the “Innovation in the face of Covid-19 and climate change crisis” Lecturer in Presidio Graduate School during the IRAMOT’s 10th International Conference. He raised some facts about how Covid-19 crises affects the poor more than the rest, and about the sources and the consequences of climate change. The opportunities for innovation, in particular circular economy, was an option for governments to put their effort on. He also mentioned the significant role of the engaged institutions to work as a system, facilitating each other.

Panel discussion session, titled as “Iranian biotechnology advances in chaotic environments” was held on the first day of the 10th International IRAMOT Conference. According to the discussions, the power of sanctions, which is an imposed hindering barrier for the medicine industry and its knowledge-based companies, has not stopped the advances in Iranian biotechnology industry. Confronting structural and functional points of interest, was another topic raised during this session. Some current issues of debate among practitioners were also brought up; including launching biotechnological products, their legislations concerns, etc.

The third discussion session on the first day of the IRAMOT’s 10th International Conference, was entitled “Collaborations among industries and knowledge-based enterprises” and brought up some debates about some complementary qualities that each party may provide for the other. It was also disused the prior question that if large companies are interested in partnering with small and medium-sized enterprises. Some challenges on bonding and engaging two parties were also mentioned; for instance mutual trust, legislations, financing, infrastructures such as insurance etc.