Representatives of Vingroup Innovation Foundation and projects leaders at the sponsor signing ceremony. — Photo courtesy of Vingroup

Vingroup Innovation Foundation (VINIF) on Monday announced VND124 billion (US$5.32 million) in investment for 20 science and technology projects.

After six months of announcing funding for science and technology oriented projects, VINIF has selected the top 20 projects from nearly 200 registration documents.

These are excellent and ground-breaking projects, bringing practical benefits in important areas such as big data, biomedical science, genetics, materials science, smart traffic, IoT, image recognition and natural language processing.

Total funding for 20 projects is VND124 billion, of which the highest level is VND10 billion for one project. The funding is used to pay the salaries of project members, local and international experts; purchase of raw materials, materials and tools; purchase of equipment for research, international publications and patent registration.

VINIF also supports other projects by providing consultants, providing large databases and intellectual property from Vingroup.

In particular, in order to facilitate the output of research projects, VINIF will support the introduction and application of research products, services and solutions into practice; help register and protect patents for inventions and utility solutions; seek investment once the project is finished to continue to improve and develop products.

In August 2019, projects will begin to receive funding for implementation, with the goal of achieving at least one of the following four requirements: there are articles published in international journals or research organisations prestigious rating Q1 or equivalent; products, services, solutions bring practical benefits to the community; accepting an application for intellectual property registration; masters training and doctoral training support.

With the aim of encouraging the development of science and technology for Viet Nam and the principle of non-profit operation, assets procured and formed from projects such as products, solutions, services, intellectual property rights and other project results belong to the project manager, research team or host organisation.

This is Vingroup's annual support programme, with flexible financial mechanisms, minimal administrative procedures and powerful resources to bring the best working conditions to scientists; at the same time, promoting research into practical applications.

“We wish to contribute to supporting Vietnamese scientists to successfully implement excellent and influential projects, with application orientation and modern approaches and technologies,” VINIF director Vu Ha Van said. — VNS