A model for national planning under new roles for government: case study of the National Iranian Nanotechnology Initiative

In recent decades, the roles of government have changed greatly and consequently systems of national planning have also changed. Governments still have roles but they must play soft roles and therefore, they need new tools for these new roles. This paper proposes a model to make it possible to establish which actions needs to be planned at the national level (particularly for science and technology development) by compounding three government roles (providing policy intelligence, making policy decisions and policy implementation) with four tools (direct intervention, regulations, offering incentives and promotion). The National Iranian Nanotechnology Initiative is used as a case study.