Introduction: Over the past two decades, science, technology, and innovation (STI) policymaking in Iran has been predominantly shaped by the knowledge-based and technology-based paradigms. While these approaches have generated significant achievements in strengthening scientific infrastructure, expanding knowledge-based enterprises, promoting technology commercialization, and developing the national innovation ecosystem, a substantial gap remains between the scientific and technological capacities created and their conversion into sustainable economic, social, and political value, as well as enduring national power. The persistence of this gap underscores the need to reconsider the dominant logic underpinning national STI policymaking. Therefore, this study aims to identify the semantic structure, conceptual dimensions, and policy implications of the emerging power-based paradigm and to explain its implications for the governance of science, technology, and innovation in Iran.

Methodology: The data were collected from a corpus of speeches and official statements delivered by the Vice President for Science, Technology, and Knowledge-Based Economy and President of the National Elite Foundation during specialized meetings with key actors of Iran’s innovation ecosystem, as well as at the national event entitled “The New Architecture of Science and Technology Governance.” As the first coherent and official articulation of the power-based discourse at the national policy level, these texts were selected as the unit of analysis. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis through a multi-stage coding process. To enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of the findings, triangulation, peer debriefing, and external auditing techniques were employed.

Findings: The findings reveal that the power-based discourse is organized around one overarching theme: “a paradigmatic shift from governance centered on the production of knowledge and technology to governance centered on the creation of sustainable national capabilities.” This overarching theme is supported by four organizing themes and seventeen basic themes. The organizing themes include: (1) critiques and limitations of previous models of science and technology development; (2) redefinition of the foundational concepts of STI governance; (3) reconfiguration of the innovation ecosystem; and (4) transformation of evaluation and governance systems. The results indicate that within this paradigm, capability is positioned as the critical link connecting knowledge, technology, innovation, and national power. Accordingly, the value-creation chain extends from knowledge to technology, from technology to innovation, from innovation to capability, and ultimately from capability to technological sovereignty and national power. Within this framework, concepts such as the power-based university, power-based science and Technology Park, elites as capability builders, the state as an ecosystem gardener, and mission-oriented innovation emerge as alternatives to conventional approaches to science, technology, and innovation development.

Conclusion/ Implication: The findings point to the emergence of a significant paradigmatic shift in Iran’s science, technology, and innovation policymaking. In this new paradigm, the value of knowledge and technology is defined not merely by their production and commercialization but by their capacity to create sustainable national capabilities, address strategic national challenges, and strengthen technological sovereignty. This paradigmatic shift carries important implications for entrepreneurship teaching and promotion, as entrepreneurs are reconceptualized from technology commercializers to builders of strategic capabilities. Likewise, performance evaluation criteria shift from quantitative output indicators toward measures associated with solving national challenges, reducing technological dependence, and enhancing the country’s position in global value chains. The power-based paradigm may therefore be understood as an evolutionary advancement of the knowledge-based paradigm, providing a novel framework for STI governance and mission-oriented entrepreneurship development through the integration of knowledge, technology, innovation, capability, and national power. Beyond a merely supportive policy approach, this framework represents a new architecture for the governance of science and technology in which knowledge and technology are viewed not as ultimate ends, but as instruments for building sustainable national capabilities and technological power.