NANO STARTUP was held with the aim to select and introduce the Iranian representatives for the first INO in 2018. This event consisted of two rounds: an in-person round where the goal was to identify technological opportunities, and a remote round including proof of concept, suggested solutions, and identifying a target market.

In the final round, the seven competing teams were asked to provide a proof of concept for their design and to identify their customers. To develop their proof of concept, the participants received support in the following areas:

• Allocation of laboratory grants and financial support

• Technical and commercial consultations 

• Facilitating services including networking and non-financial support 

Participants were evaluated by eleven judges in the technical and commercial fields during the International Nanotechnology Festival in Tehran.

The criteria for evaluation process included novelty of the concept", "proposed target market", and "quality of team’s performance".

In this competition, Nanit’s idea on "Chromium recovery by photocatalyst adsorbents in the production of leather", Pakab’s idea on "a pocket lab for testing water pollution", and Abino’s idea on "microbial contamination detector" ranked first to third, respectively.