Assessing the Goals and Functions of Science and Technology Parks of Iran and the Amount of their Focus on Different Stages of Innovation Process

Today, knowledge is considered as a competitive advantage. So, different countries try to prepare necessary infrastructure for knowledge development in different levels. One of the solutions in this field especially for know-how development is establishing physical places with purpose of doing knowledge based projects. These physical places were established in different countries with various names like scientific parks, technopolis, hi-tech zones and so on. Regarding to the necessity of establishing these places, some efforts have been done in this way. Identification of scientific and technology park objectives and also investigation of their focused fields are very essential for policy making in future. Thus, it is tried in this research to investigate the objectives and functions of Iranian science and technology parks. Also by a national survey, importance of various stages of innovation was elicited. Finally, for improving performance of these institutions some solutions have been presented.