Meeting Between the TUMS Director of International Relations and the First Secretary of the Italian Embassy in Iran on the Expansion of Scientific Cooperation with Italian Educational and Research Institutions

At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Nekoofar, Director of International Relations of the university, welcomed the First Secretary of the Italian Embassy in Iran, introduced the university and its profile, and then explained the capacities and potentials of the TUMS schools, the International Campus and the research centers of the University.

Referring to the services of 16 university teaching hospitals with 5,000 hospital beds provided for patients in Tehran and the important role of the university in the country's pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Nekoofar said: "About three million patients in the southern part of Tehran use the services of these medical centers, and 35% of the country's drugs are produced by TUMS."

He also explained about the scientific and research position of TUMS in Iran and the world, and the TUMS scientific collaborations: "The number of joint articles of professors and faculty members of TUMS with international researchers in the past five years has been significant; also, the university's scientific collaborations and interactions with various countries have grown significantly in recent years, and in order to achieve international goals, foreign students have been admitted and currently about 800 students from 45 countries are studying at this university."

Referring to the history of educational and research relations between the university and Italian scientific centers in the last five years, especially the signing of a memorandum of cooperation with the Italian University of Camerino, Dr. Nekoofar stated: "We are ready to expand cooperation with Italian universities and educational and research institutions."

Then, Dr. Jazayeri, the Head of the Desk for International Cooperation between TUMS and the universities of Italy, explained the activities and measures taken by this cooperation desk and emphasized on the development of connection and interaction with Italian universities at the basic sciences and clinical levels.

He asked the Italian Embassy in Iran to provide a platform for introducing the Desk for International Cooperation between TUMS and the universities of Italy to the Italian scientific and research institutes and to cooperate with TUMS in creating cooperation opportunities and facilitating these scientific links.

Noting that both Iran and Italy have been strongly affected by the covid-19 pandemic since the beginning of the spread of the virus worldwide, Dr. Jazayeri, added: "Experiences gained during COVID-19 crisis may be a great opportunity for joint cooperation."

Dr. Hazini, an advisory member of the Desk for International Cooperation between TUMS and universities of Italy, also stressed the need to develop an action plan for joint cooperation and proposed announcing a call at the university level to develop interactions with Italian universities.

Dr. Chiniforush, the Director of Leading House for Iran-Switzerland Academic Partnerships, also welcomed any links between the University and Italian scientific and academic centers.

Then, Dr. Gianpaolo Martina thanked TUMS officials for holding the meeting, and emphasized on the importance of bilateral educational and research cooperation between TUMS and Italian scientific institutes. He expressed the readiness of the Italian Embassy in Iran to facilitate these scientific collaborations, and suggested the fields of collaborations be specific and specialized. Dr, Martina also stated that a road map and proposal about the collaboration should be prepared in advance, and then the stages of the collaborations should be implemented step by step.

In the end, the parties expressed their satisfaction with the idea of ​​developing interactions, and it was decided that the Desk for International Cooperation between TUMS and universities of Italy will prepare a comprehensive collaboration proposal in the next three weeks to present and discuss in the next meeting with the First Secretary of the Italian Embassy in Iran.