Iran’s Proposed Standard for Nano-indicators in 15th Meeting of ISO/TC229

The 15th meeting of ISO/TC229 was held in Mexico from March 4 to 8 with over 200 representatives of 19 countries in attendance.

In the meeting, various standards proposed by different countries were studied and discussed. Iran also proposed one of the standards entitled ‘Nanotechnologes- Vocabularies for Science, Technology & Innovation indicators”, which is due to be devised with the cooperation of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This standard defines some concepts, including nanoproduct, human resources in nanoscience and nanotechnology (HRNST), nanotechnology market, etc. the definition of these terms helps the measurement of indicators to evaluate nanoscience and nanotechnology.

By using a common international language about nanoscience and nanotechnology evaluation indicators, the number of nanoproducts, nanotechnology based companies, and nano economy can be studied and assessed at international and national levels. Various statistics are currently published by different international organizations about the number of nano products, nano market, etc., which are far different. The reason is the lack of an international definition and language in this field.

A lot of comments had been sent by countries like the United States, Canada, and France about the terms nano product human resources in nanoscience and nanotechnology (HRNST) before meeting. The comments were reviewed and resolved in the meeting by project leader.