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The report presents the performance of the Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Institute (SCWMRI) from the perspective of implementing the four-year operational research and technology program that began in the second half of 2023. Based on the roadmap approved in 2022 and the announced master plans, SCWMRI has independent and ordered projects on its agenda. However, this report mainly presents the performance of SCWMRI from the perspective of implementing five operational research and technology programs, namely river engineering and coastal protection, comprehensive watershed management, soil erosion management, basin-scale water management, and drought and climate change. In 2023, a total of 238 research projects were under implementation, of which 106 were headquarters projects and 132 were provincial projects. Also, the number of ordered projects of the research institute this year was 56, or 23 percent. An average of 2.3 projects has been assigned to staff colleagues, of which the research groups of soil and water conservation engineering and river engineering and coastal protection have been the most active groups, with an average of 2.4 projects per scientific staff member. In the six months of implementing the research and technology operational programs, 49 projects were reviewed, approved, and notified, which is 50% of the number of projects predicted. Also, in 2023, 92 final reports were successful in obtaining a publication number. On the other hand, the failure to fulfill the approved requirements of the research and technology operational programs and the low number of specialists related to these programs, especially in the provinces, and the failure of provincial colleagues to justify the concept of these programs have been among the most important obstacles to the full implementation of the program. In 2023, 15 ISI articles were published by colleagues of this research institute. Other outputs include two monographs, eight technical instructions, three books, two translated books, two site visit reports, a collection of articles, 15 technical notes, and two scientific maps that have been awarded the publication number. The aforementioned achievements were made in a situation where, in 2023, the specific income was 50,000 million rials, the acquisition of assets and capital was 130,270 million rials, and the expenditure credits were 398,747 million rials. This year, the amount of research contracts was 30,379 million rials. In 2023, the total credit allocated to the headquarters' research projects was 1,650 million rials, and 2,906 million rials were paid to provincial projects. The envisaged future study for research and technology in 2024 is the definition, approval, and notification of 102 research projects and the compensation of 50 percent of the programs in 2023. Also, increasing the share of research funds, increasing the average number of research projects of faculty members at the headquarters and provinces, convergence of the outputs of research and technology operational programs to address environmental challenges corresponding to the missions of the research institute, and increasing the amount of ordered projects.
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