An Overview on Research and Innovation in Water Sector of Iran: the Necessity of Paradigm Shifts

As illustrated by World Economic Forum, the developed and developing countries are differentiated by the relevance of their economy to Innovation. Innovation is the engagement of many different individual and institutional actors and one of its key elements, is research. Global index confirmed that Iran is not high ranked with regards to innovation and the country showed its most success in presenting scientific papers. Although in the field of water there are some significant enhancements but the activities have not played an effective contribution in solving the existing challenges. This review note is reporting the importance of research and innovation in water management studies as well as the role of Iranian Innovation System in the same. The two main challenges which are addressed in this study are the weakness of institutional frameworks and the low efficiency of research actors/stakeholders. Results also showed that although there are many different high-level documents in this context in Iran, most of strategies and processes of research organizations or the influential stakeholders are not coinciding such documents and need revision. Furthermore, one of the key solutions for improving the research and innovation effectiveness is the relationship and engagement between the three elements of the national innovation system (i.e. universities, industries and government) such that the mobility of people among these elements would help to increase knowledge, skills, experiences and the “tacit knowledge” in form of a horizontal open engagement.