A technology foresight project was accomplished in Iran a few years ago. The project titled as: "The most appropriate technologies for Iran in 2025: A pilot foresight (PAMFA)". Last year (2009) the results of project was published within 5 volumes of a book. After preparing the final comprehensive book (that was in Persian) in just one volume, it was ordered for translation into English.

Now PAMFA final document is translated into English by Alireza Hejazi  and more information on the English version of PAMFA document can be requested from "Atinegaar Think Tank", the Iranian foresight institute who was responsible for this scientific-technological activity: www.atinegaar.com

Here is a brief description on PAMFA:

Achieving the eminent goals of Iran's 2025 vision requires to identify the main destination and to determine the path to realize those goals. Therefore National Research Institute for Science Policy (NRISP) as the major policy research Think Tank of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT) decided to initiate a national project namely "The most appropriate technologies for Iran in 2025: A pilot foresight (PAMFA)" since 2006. PAMFA is the title of a foresight project which attempts to have a long term look into Iran's science and technology future.

The main aim of this project is "To identify alternative futures of technologies in Iran; their desirable and undesirable aspects".

The main phase of PAMFA which was started on November 2007, covered 5 different sectors in the framework of 5 panels. Scenario writing, Delphi, and panel methods were used at this phase. The mentioned sectors are:

1.      Electronics, telecommunication and hardware;

2.      Aerospace;

3.      Marine technology;

4.      Information technology and software;

5.      Biotechnology;

 PAMFA 2025 Outputs

The most important outputs of this phase are:

 Tangible Outputs

-          Future scenarios of each sector;

-          Publish a book about the future of each sector

-          Establishing a data bank of experts in each sector

-          List of main uncertainties of each sector;

-          List of the national strengths and weaknesses of each sector;

-          List of priorities of each sector

-          A benchmark study of Iran and the counterpart countries mentioned in the national vision document on main technologies at each sector and the suggested main policies regarding each sector.

Intangible Outputs

-       To expand the culture of participatory approach of policy-making in science and technology sectors at national level;

-          To promote the culture futures thinking among the national science and technology Community;

-          Capacity building for performing macro projects on foresight in the country

Future plan of PAMFA (AMFA 2025)

At the third phase of PAMFA project, National Research Institute for Science Policy attempts to concentrate on more general sectors that take advantage from the aforementioned technologies by using the experiences of the previous two stages, for example: ‘transportation sector’, ‘energy sector’, ‘education sector’ or ‘economy sector’ in which a collection of various technologies are used. This stage of the project is more participatory in which the cooperation of relevant sectors (like Ministry of Oil, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Transportation) required and by using the outcomes of the second stage, the country’s alternative and desired futures will be identified.