Evaluation of Research Institutes and Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Centers of the Islamic Republic of Iran for Their Research Projects, Scientific Outcomes, Innovations and Discoveries

The present study was carried out on 21 research headquarters and 32 research centers in 30 provinces, affiliated with the Agricultural Research and Education Organization (AREO) of the Islamic Republic of Iran and nine other research bureaus and centers affiliated with other organizations in the country. Necessary data were collected through the questionnaire froms filled out by the research instilutes and centers. Based on the results, 21 research headquarters and 32 research centers of AREO carried out and completed 2664 research projects and had also 2703 projects in progress (mean of three years period of 2001-2003). Every researcher in research institutes completed 1.3 research projects and had 1.4 projects in progress. These indices were 1.1 and 0.4 for nine other research bureaus and centers, respectively. The higher number of research projects in agricultural science, had been carried out by the researchers in AREO during this period. Mean number of books written or translated by each AREO researcher was about 0.3% which was 1/3 of the total books in agricultural science published by the researchers of the country in 2000. The pertaining number for researchers in the nine research bureaus and centers was 13% which was higher than that of the total researchers in the country. Per capita number of scientific research articles, extensional papers and papers presented in congresses (domestic or abroad) were 0.33, 0.13 and 1.02 per year, respectively, and as a whole, it was about the same as that of the whole country (0.466).