The director general of the Commercial Office of Iran’s Ministry of Agriculture says that $6 billion of agricultural products are annually exported from the country.

Considering its high capacity in the field of grain production, Iran can become the hub of the region in this field in addition to developing trade and increasing the gross national product (GNP), Shahyad Abnar stated.

Speaking in the 4th edition of the international conference of “Iran Grain”, he added that Iran’s capacity to export agricultural and food products is unique.

He put the capacity of the flour processing industry at 30 million tons, adding that this high capacity, in addition to meeting the domestic demand, can also meet the demand of neighboring states.

He put the annual export of agricultural products from the country at $6 billion.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Abnar said the private sector plays a leading role in the food industry and called on responsible officials in the current administration to remove trade barriers in this industry.

MNA/

The head of National Iranian Gas Transmission Company (NIGTC) has said that 99 percent of the country’s gas transmission equipment and facilities are domestically-made, noting that the country’s gas industry is on the verge of complete self-sufficiency.

Gholam-Abbas Hosseini put the area of the country’s high-pressure gas network at 40,000 kilometers and stressed the significant role of the NIGTC employees in maintaining and development the mentioned network./ T.T/

The 36th edition of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth has received 176 submissions from 48 countries. Participating countries include Serbia, Tajikistan, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Hungary, Italy, India, Palestine, France, China, Jordan, Russia, Qatar, Norway, and Armenia. Additionally, Spain, Mexico, the U.S., Mongolia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Tunisia, Iraq, and Ukraine, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

The competition is further enriched by entries from Sweden, Finland, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, Argentina, South Korea, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Bolivia, Chile, Luxembourg, Denmark, Canada, Lebanon, Syria, Austria, Poland, and Thailand, all vying for a spot in the festival’s competitive sections for short and feature-length films.

The lineup of the selected movies will be announced in the near future.

Back in July, the secretary of the festival Majid Zeinolabedin said that this year, conditions have been set in place for young filmmakers to participate in the festival and have their works compete with other productions.

The reality is that despite all the positive steps taken for children’s and youth cinema in previous years, this cinema is extremely weak and in dire need of a strategic plan for support, he added.

“Appropriate cultural funds should be allocated for this cinema.”

For such festival film viewing for families alongside children and youth attending the festival should be facilitated, he explained.

Moreover, incentive mechanisms should be established to support selected Iranian films at the stage of public screening, he mentioned.

The 36th edition of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth is set to be held in the central Iranian city of Isfahan from October 5 to 10.  / T.T/

There was double joy for Iran on the first day of the World Taekwondo Junior Championships in Chuncheon, Korea as Parnian Noori and Aynaz Nasiri won two gold medals.

Noori overcame China’s Yinuo Xu in an intriguing women’s -52kg final to become the first junior world champion crowned in Chuncheon, and her feat was later matched by her compatriot Nasiri, who staved off the challenge of Kazakhstan’s Nuray Kaznabek in the women’s -59kg.

Bronze medals went to Sila Irmak Uzunçavdar of Türkiye and Spain’s Noa Romero Fernandez in the -52kg weight category, and Ella Brewster of Canada and Croatia’s Marija Uglešić in the -59kg.

Iran has sent 16 boy and girl taekwondo athletes to the Championships in Chuncheon, to be held from Oct. 1 to 6.

There are 963 of the world’s most talented young athletes set to compete across 10 weight categories in both the men’s and women’s divisions. /T.T/

Iranian animators received two awards at the 27th edition of the Religion Today Film Festival in Trento, Italy. At the closing ceremony, which was held last week, Baran Sedighian won the Best Animation Award for her short animation “The Deer” and Mona Shams was awarded the Special Jury Mention for the short animation “Phoenix,” ISNA reported.

In a statement about selecting “The Deer” as the winner, the jury said: “We are delighted to present the award for Best Animation Short Film for a beautifully crafted tale that resonates with the themes of transformation and self-discovery. The film tells the story of a wounded deer who embarks on a journey of healing and introspection and chooses to leave his herd and set out in search of his new self. This captivating animation explores the courage it takes to embrace change and find one’s true path”.

A production of 2023, “The Deer” is a five-minute animation with no dialogues. The life of the deer in this animation changes radically after getting injured by hunters. His old world no longer seems to fit him, so he decides to leave.

On selecting the recipient of the Special Jury Mention, the jury said: “It goes to a film that merges the artistry of animation with the rawness of real-life experiences; a powerful documentary animation from Iran that explores the profound themes of migration and the search for a new homeland. Through the poignant story of a soldier who decides to leave everything behind and start again, this film offers a deeply moving portrayal of the courage it takes to rebuild one’s life”.

“Phoenix,” produced by the Documentary, Experimental, and Animation Cinema Expansion Center, delves into the concept of migration and leaving one’s homeland. It was crafted using the actual voices of Iranian migrants across the world.

It is an animated documentary, six minutes, based on real sounds. The story of the film is about a person who decides to immigrate, and different voices of immigrants collected in documentary form narrate the feelings and events of the hero of the film.

There were 64 films in competition, from 32 countries. The international jury was composed of leading professionals from the international film industry including producer and researcher Fateme Javhersaz from Iran.

Established in 1997 as the first Italian festival of spiritual cinema and inter-religious dialogue, the Religion Today Film Festival has come a long way, and today this appointment with religious cinema is well known and appreciated all over the world.

Religion Today is an international and itinerant film festival dedicated to religious diversity for a culture of peace and interfaith dialogue. It promotes a journey “exploring the differences”, both in religious practices and beliefs and in cinematic styles and languages, towards a mutual enrichment through reciprocal knowledge and comparison.

Together with the world cinema competition, open to any film with a religious connection, it offers a platform for exchanging ideas and viewpoints, including a “living workshop” involving filmmakers of different faiths and nationalities. /T.T/

Iran defeated Pakistan 41-34 to win the title of the 2024 World Beach Kabaddi Championship Sunday night. Team Melli had previously defeated Nepal, Turkmenistan, Denmark, Iraq and Kenya in the first edition of the event.

Iraq and Pakistan were awarded a joint bronze medal.

Iran, Nepal, Turkmenistan, Denmark, Pakistan, Palestine, Kenya, Germany and Lebanon competed in the first World Beach Kabaddi Championship, which was held in Bandar Anzali, Iran from Sept. 25 to 29.

Beach kabaddi is played in two 15-minute halves by two teams of four players who are not allowed to wear shoes. It is played at an international level in competitions such as the Asian Beach Games. /T.T/

Students of Sharif University of Technology are ranked first among West Asian countries at the 14th International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).

The international competition was held from September 15 to 20 in Astana, Kazakhstan, ISNA reported.

The event was attended by 73,000 students from more than 100 countries representing leading universities in each country.

The Iranian team was composed of Ali Safari, Alireza Keshavarz, and Amir-Mohammad Shahrezaei.

Sharif University of Technology ranked 13 globally, sharing the position with Harvard University, St. Petersburg State University, University of Oxford, and University of Science and Technology of China, as well as other famous institutions receiving the highest honors.

The ICPC is a prestigious international student programming Olympiad. It was founded in the 1970s in the USA and has since become a global competition that gathers the best teams of students from universities around the world to solve complex algorithmic problems.

At the international level, ICPC was first held in 1977 in the USA, University of Michigan. Since then, the competition has been held annually in various countries such as the USA, Russia, the Netherlands, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Japan, Sweden, Poland, Thailand, Morocco, Egypt, Bangladesh and Portugal.

This year, for the first time, the competition was held in Kazakhstan in Astana.

The ICPC community’s purpose is to advance prospects for the next generation by bringing students together working collaboratively to solve algorithmically challenging problems, and preparing them to build dependable systems that benefit their neighbors with the support of universities, industry, and community leaders, globally.

Volunteer coaches prepare their teams with intense training and instruction in algorithms, programming, and teamwork strategy.

Huddled around a single computer, the teams of three students compete against each other to solve eight or more complex, real-world problems within a five-hour deadline.

Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds, and build software systems that solve the problems. The team that solves the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time is declared the winner.

Recent achievements

A total of 18 students from Iran attended the 47th WorldSkills Competition, winning 9 medals including a silver medal and medallions for excellence.

The competition was held from September 10 to 15 in Lyon, France. Some 1,500 competitors from more than 65 countries and regions around the world gathered in Lyon to compete in different skills.

Iran grabbed a gold medal, two silver medals, and a bronze medal at the 36th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), ranking 9th among 96 countries.

Hosted in Alexandria, Egypt, the event started on September 1 and concluded on September 8, IRNA reported.

Each participating country selected a team of up to four contestants to represent their nation.

The team competed in a two-day competition. Each contestant competed individually to maximize their score by solving three algorithmic problems within five hours.

Iranian students attended the event online and ranked ninth globally. Amir-Ali Asgari grabbed the gold medal, Amir-Hossein Farkhondeh-Far and Amir-Reza Dorosti won the silver medals, while Parsa Farajpour-Sarabi received the bronze medal.

In a remarkable achievement, Iranian students won five gold medals, ranking first in the 17th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) which was held from August 17 to 27 in Vassouras, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The five-member team comprised Hannaneh Khorramdashti, Mohammad-Mehdi Keshavarzi, Arya Fateh-Kerdari, and Ali Naderi-Lordjan, Mehr news agency reported.

This year, over 250 students from 57 countries participated in the event.

Five Iranian students who attended the 54th International Physics Olympiad managed to win a gold medal and four silver medals, improving the country’s ranking from 17th in 2023 to fourth this year.

The 54th edition of the IPhO commenced on July 22 in the city of Isfahan and concluded on July 28.

A total of 200 elite students from 47 countries including Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Mexico, Turkey, and some other countries participated in the nine-day event, IRNA reported.

A team of Iranian students won five gold medals in different fields of research in the 9th edition of the ‘1Idea 1World’ International Innovation, Design & Startup Competition.

The event, which is considered one of the biggest international idea and technology competitions in the world, was held in the city of Istanbul, Turkey, on April 28-29.

Participants from 24 countries including Iran, Canada, China, Taiwan, The United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates participated in the competition both in person and online to showcase their innovative projects in 10 different subgroups such as medicine and agriculture, IRNA reported.

From among 273 different innovative ideas, the top five ideas received special awards, with two of the awards going to Iranian participants.

In the Taiwan International Science Fair (TISF) 2024, which was held from January 28 to February 2, the Iranian team ranked fourth among 28 countries.

Mehrad Faridi and Ilya Haji from Iran competed with 41 teams during the five-day event which was hosted by the capital city of Taipei, IRIB reported.

Iran ranked fourth next to Taiwan, the United States, and Russia.

Attending the 40th Annual Science Olympiad Tournament at Michigan State University, Iranian students managed to win a bronze medal and two diplomas of honor.

A total of 114 teams from 84 countries presenting 310 scientific projects participated in the competition, Mehr news agency reported.

The competition is held annually for students aged 12 – 18 from June 1 to 15.

Supported by Oxford University, the competition was held in two stages in the fields of technical engineering, computer science, energy, biological science, social science, art, and robotics. /T.T/

Stanford University, using Scopus data provided by Elsevier, has listed 2,503 Iranian researchers among the top 2 percent of the most-cited scientists in the world, a significant growth compared to 1,870 researchers in 2023.

The selection is based on the top 100,000 scientists by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2 percent or above in the sub-field. This version (7) is based on the August 1, 2024, snapshot from Scopus, updated to the end of the citation year 2023.

The inclusion in the ‘Top 2%’ list is determined by several key metrics. C-score which is the composite score based on various bibliometric factors, including the total number of citations, h-index, and the number of citations with and without self-citations.

Field and Sub-field Percentiles: scientists are classified into 22 broad fields and 176 sub-fields. Only those who rank in the top 2% of their sub-field are included.

Career-Long vs. Single-Year Impact: the ranking is available for both career-long impact and single-year performance, offering insights into both long-term contributions and recent achievements.

Iran ranks 32nd in 2024 Research Leaders worldwide

The 2024 edition of the Nature Index Research Leaders report placed Iran 32nd among Research Leaders globally. The report is based on Nature Index data from January 1 to December 31, 2023.

Institute for Fundamental Sciences (IPM), University of Tehran, and Sharif University of Technology were ranked first to third in the country.

The country was ranked second in Physical Sciences, third in Chemistry, as well as Health Sciences, fourth in Earth and Environmental Sciences, and fifth in Biological Sciences in the region.

Iran’s best global ranking was in Physical Sciences with the rank of 27.

The Nature Index is an open database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. The Index tracks contributions to research articles published in high-quality natural science and health science journals, chosen based on reputation by an independent group of researchers.

The Nature Index provides absolute Count and fractional share counts of article publications at the institutional and national levels and, as such, is an indicator of global high-quality research output and collaboration.

Data in the Nature Index are updated regularly, with the most recent 12 months. The database is compiled by Nature Research Intelligence, part of Springer Nature.

Iran ranks 14th for most-cited institutes

The number of top Iranian universities and research institutes in the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database has increased from 115 last year to 134 this year, ranking the country 14th worldwide, and second among Islamic countries, the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) has reported.

Essential Science Indicators, or ESI, is a fundamental analysis and evaluation tool that reveals emerging science trends, as well as the performance of influential individuals, academic institutions, papers, journals, countries, and regions in various fields of scientific research.

A total of 9,019 universities and research institutes in all subject areas are ranked by the ESI database in a ten-year period, from 2014 to 2024.

Iran’s top universities and research institutes are present in 19 subject areas, and the largest number is in the clinical medicine subject area with 74 universities and research institutes.

The number of institutions in the subject areas of engineering was 67, chemistry 57, agricultural sciences 29, materials sciences 28, pharmacology and toxicology 27, social sciences, general sciences 21.

Also, the number of institutions in the fields of plant and animal sciences, and environment/ecology 20 each, neuroscience and behavior 18, biology and biochemistry 17, computer science 15, immunology 10, geology 8, molecular biology and genetics and physics 5 each, microbiology and psychiatry and psychology 3 each and mathematics one.

The ranking includes 35 Islamic countries. Turkey ranks first among Islamic nations, followed by Iran in second place.

Also, Turkey with 149 universities and research institutes ranks 12th in the world.

Egypt (with 48 universities and research institutes) ranks 25th, Pakistan (with 46 universities) ranks 27th, and Saudi Arabia (with 45 universities) ranks 38th, respectively.  /T.T/

The head of the Iranian Space Agency Hassan Salarieh announced that at least 5 satellites would be launched into space by the end of the current Iranian year of 1403 (ending on March 20).

In an interview with Mehr News Agency on Monday, Salarieh said that 5-7 satellites would be launched into space by the yearend.

He added that the Iranian Space Agency is planning sub-orbital launches in 1403 with the cooperation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force.

“This year we would have 2 foreign launches,” he said, adding that the Tolo-3 and Zafar-2 satellites will be launched with foreign launchers in upcoming months.

The homegrown Kosar satellite would also be launched this year, Salarieh added, underlining that this satellite was built by the private sector. / MNA/

Iran’s export of various services including tourism, transit, and technical engineering reached about $12 billion in the previous Iranian calendar year 1402 (ended on March 19), registering a 20 percent rise compared to a year earlier, an official with the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) announced.

Mohammad-Sadegh Ghanadzadeh, the TPO’s deputy head for international business promotion, put the country’s exports of services in the year 1401 at $10 billion, IRIB reported.

According to the official, the Islamic Republic exported about $2.5 billion of technical engineering services to other countries in the previous year, noting that in case of removing the obstacles the export of such services could increase up to $6.0 billion.

“One of the most important obstacles to the export of technical engineering services is the issuance of guarantees for the participation of companies in tenders in the target countries. Last year, a proposed package was prepared by the Trade Promotion Organization with the help of the Union of Technical and Engineering Services Exporters and proposed to the government, which we expect to solve many of such problems when implemented,” Ghanadzadeh said.

Last month, Mohammadreza Karimzadeh, the director-general of TPO’s Knowledge-Based Products and Technical and Engineering Services Office, said Iran’s export of technical engineering services exceeded $200 million in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-July 21) from the same period of time in the previous year.

According to Karimzadeh, the exports of the mentioned services increased by 18 percent compared to the previous year’s same period.

The implemented projects in other countries were in various fields including oil and gas, energy transmission lines, information and communication technology as well as water and sewage projects, he noted.

Back in April, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iran Water Industry Federation said the country exported $1.8 billion worth of technical and engineering services over the past two years.

Stressing the importance of exporting technical and engineering services, Reza Haj Karim said giant steps have been taken in the administration of late President Ebrahim Raisi in the field as compared to the previous years.

Domestic knowledge-based companies have a high potential to export technical and engineering services and can do even better with due support from the government, he underscored.

Haj Karim further noted that Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and East Asian countries are among those whose economic growth is higher than the world average so this Asian market can be a lucrative market for Iranian domestic companies.

As a leading country in the water and electricity industry, Iran stands in the first rank in the region in the export of technical and engineering services in this industry, and this shows the high technical and engineering knowledge and ability of Iranian specialists and companies.

Thanks to the efforts of the country’s specialists in the years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran is now among the top five power plant turbine manufacturing countries in the world. /T.T/