FNA - Deputy Health Minister for Research and Technology Reza Malekzadeh underlined Iran's pioneering role in the production of science in the region.

"We rank first among the regional states in the production of science, and based on the ISI, Iran ranked 15th in the world in 2018 which is a major achievement for the country," Malekzadeh said, addressing a forum on Friday.

He added that Iran also stands atop the regional nations with 29 superior universities followed by Turkey with 23 high-level universities.

In relevant remarks last July, Head of the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) Mohammad Javad Dehqani announced that Iran stood atop the Muslim nations in production of science.

"A look at the latest data presented by the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) indicates that the Islamic Republic of Iran ranks first in science production among Muslim states and has produced over 22% of the Islamic countries' scientific productions," Dehqani said.

He added that Iran also stood among the first 15 world states in production of science by registering over 25,500 ISI articles and researches.

Also in the same month, Head of the Iranian Space Agency Morteza Barari announced that Iran stood atop the nations of the region in area of space science and the 2nd in area of satellite navigation.

"At present, Iran ranks the first in the region in space science and this rank has been maintained in the past 5 years, while we are way ahead of the second nation," Barari said, addressing a ceremony in Tehran.

He also added that Iran ranks 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 5th and 2nd respectively in the region in the fields of satellite launchers, science and discoveries, remote sensing, telecommunications, satellite technologies and navigation.

Barari said that Iran's progress in these areas is different from other regional states because the country has relied on its own capabilities to develop the space technologies.