Identifying and analyzing the policy options to improve the structure of the budget law in the area of public funding for research and development

Nearly 60 percent of R&D funding in Iran is public funding, which is planned in the annual budget law. In order to accurately predict and measure the government budget for R&D, it is necessary to accurately define the R&D activities in the annual budget law. In this study, by analyzing the documentary content of annual budget laws and reviewing international standards, experiences of the other countries, and taking into account the conditions and requirements of Iran three policy options were proposed to define the framework for public R&D funding: (1) packing all R&D programs under different chapters titled R&D and Innovation Chapter, (2) packing all R&D chapters under 10 budgetary sections and aggregation in the form of R&D section, (3) removing all R&D programs from 10 budgetary sections and other relevant chapters and aggregating them in the form of a new appendix titled R&D Appendix. Assessing the feasibility of the options and the number of changes in the current state by the focus group method shows that the ease of implementation of the options decreases from the first to the third option, respectively, but instead the second option makes the R&D funding index completely transparent, and the third option aligns with five-year development plans and other upstream rules.