Studying the status of research grants of Smart University of Medical Sciences with an emphasis on achievements, challenges and solutions

Background: The role of interdisciplinary research in medical sciences in expanding the frontiers of knowledge, innovation, and invention of new technologies, solving health system challenges, improving public health, enhancing social welfare, and sustainable development is hidden from no one, especially health policymakers. This study was conducted to review the status of Smart Medical Sciences University’s research grants. Methods: This study was based on an integrated analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were collected by reviewing published documents of calls for proposals from 1398 to 1402 and online satisfaction questionnaires, and qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Results: Based on the analysis of the data for the past 5 years related to the call for research grants of Smart University of Medical Sciences, a total of 31 projects have been approved. In this regard, most submitted projects were in the fields of virtual and augmented reality (12%), mobile learning (11.6%), games and game design (9.2%), instructional design (7.2%), artificial intelligence and machine learning (6%), platforms (5.6%), course evaluation (6%), educational resources (4%), assessment (4%) and other fields (34.4%). In addition, based on qualitative data analysis, 27 outcomes emerged for the education and health system in 11 areas. Finally, based on the combination of findings, strategies were categorized to overcome the challenges of research grant calls. Conclusion: Despite identifying challenges in research grant calls, the results show that development grant calls at Smart University of Medical Sciences have had positive achievements for the health education system, which can ultimately be used to improve the medical education system.