The Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research or S.P.N.D. ( fa, سازمان پژوهش‌های نوین دفاعی, transliterated Sazman-e Pazhouheshhaye Novin-e Defa’i and abbreviated سازمان سپند) is a

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

agency of the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. According to Iranian medias, it is the Iranian counterpart of the American

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

. The organization was reportedly established and led by

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Mahabadi ( fa, محسن فخری‌زاده مهابادی ;195827 November 2020) was an Iranian nuclear physicist and scientist. He was regarded as the chief of Iran's nuclear program. Born in Qom in 1958, Fakhrizadeh joine ...

until his assassination outside

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

on November 26, 2020. According to the Israeli officials, later backed up by American intelligence officials, it was tasked with the research and development of nuclear weapons, and took over some of the activities of the

AMAD Project AMAD Project (or AMAD Plan, fa, پروژه آماد) is an Iranian scientific project, started in 1989 and stopped in 2003 according to IAEA, that is suspected by Israel to have nonetheless continued, with the aim of developing nuclear weapons. ...

. It has been sanctioned by the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

and

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

. According to the US, it was established in 2011. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran, the organization developed Iran's first

COVID-19 testing COVID-19 testing involves analyzing samples to assess the current or past presence of SARS-CoV-2. The two main types of tests detect either the presence of the virus or antibodies produced in response to infection. Molecular tests for viral ...

kits and also

FAKHRAVAC FAKHRAVAC ( fa, واکسن فخرا) is a COVID-19 vaccine developed in Iran by the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, a subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defense. It's the third Iranian COVID-19 vaccine reaching clinical trials. ...

, a

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

References

Organisations based in Iran Government-owned companies of Iran Government agencies of Iran Scientific organisations based in Iran {{Iran-gov-stub