Shamtak Network's failure and its lessons to Emerging S&T Networks

SHAMTAK network could be recognized as the first and most deliberate formal attempt in I. R. of Iran for sharing S&T infrastructures at the national level. Failure of this network has led to serious doubts among S&T policymakers and national-level decision-makers about the possibility of establishing a stable S&T network in the country. However¡ a number of new networks emerged through the last decade in the S&T fields. Many lessons could be drawn from the deep investigation of SHAMTAK network’s failure story in order to prepare a guideline for emerging S&T networks in the country. Nevertheless¡ S&T policy and management researchers have not done a remarkable study about this network yet. In this qualitative research¡ we deeply investigated SHAMTAK network’s story to uncover reasons for its failure. In this way¡ conducting a qualitative inquiry and using case study method¡ we collected related data adequately from in-depth interviews with key informants¡ observation¡ archived documents¡ and reviews published on this network. In order to study this experience effectively¡ we classified SHAMTAK networks into three main generations. The study reveals a number of facts as the reasons for SHAMTAK network’s failure including; dissolution of initial funding organization and transferring SHAMTAK to another institute¡ large scale initiation of SHAMTAK network without a well-defined model¡ weakness in collaboration and linkage mechanisms of the network and it’s acting as a budget distribution system¡ and different opinions of policy-makers in funding/supporting organizations about the goals and roles of the network in SHAMTAK’s lifelong.