During the first day of the annual Asia Nano Forum (ANF) meeting on May 17th, 2018, Prof. Ali Beitollahi presented Iran’s Industrialization Centre for Applied Nanotechnology (ICAN) project. This initiative is designed to help small companies with their prototypes and products and prepare them to face the industry and the market. During the meeting, the head of the Asia-pacific Industrial Cooperation Promotion Office in Taiwan also presented several policies that the country has implemented in order to better collaborate with the rest of the South Asian countries. Delegates from Malaysia, Philippine, and Thailand each gave a speech about their policies related to nanotechnology and commercialization. At the end of the day 1, several nanotechnology companies from Iran, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand introduced their achievements and products.

The second day of the meeting started with delegates from Australia, Austria, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Philippine, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand discussing reports and future ANF global goals. Later at the presidential palace, the vice-president of Taiwan and the Minister of science and technology listened as Prof. Beitollahi, the chairman of the international nanotechnology Olympiad (INO) steering committee discussed INO goals and mission statements. He presented the achievements of the first INO and invited the participating countries to attend the next INO event. Prof. Beitollahi also presented the first Asia-Europe Dialogue on nano-safety which was held last fall in Iran. Subsequent to his presentation, Austria announced their candidacy to hold the second round of Asia-Europe Dialogue in Vienna. At the end of the meeting, the Taiwanese team that won first prize of the INO 2018 and INIC as the INO organizer were warmly recognized.