Winners of the first round of the Innovation Partnership Grants, part of the Aus4Innovation programme, were honoured at an event held by the Embassy of Australia and the Ministry of Science and Technology in Hanoi on October 9.

At the award ceremony (Photo: qdnd.vn)

The programme aims to help strengthen Vietnam’s innovation system and prepare for the country’s economic and digital future.

This time, the three award-winning projects include one on water treatment technology and monitoring systems; another on hormone production technology which helps raise sea cucumber farming’s productivity; and the rest on breast cancer diagnosis.

They will receive grants totalling more than 1.6 million AUD (1.08 million USD).

A seminar on experiences in innovation system development of Vietnam and Australia was held on the day as part of the Skills and Innovation Week. It looked to address challenges in the setup of innovation system, considered the key to Vietnam’s sustainable development.

At the event, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy spoke highly of Australia’s support for Vietnam in the development of innovation system, particularly in cooperation between the two countries’ businesses, institutions and universities towards the digital economy development.

Chargé d'affaires at the Australian Embassy Rebecca Bryant said building strong and lasting connections in the two nations’ innovation system is among main targets of the Australia-Vietnam strategic partnership.

The Innovation Partnership Grant is an important part of the 11 million AUD Aus4Innovation programme being carried out in four year (2018-2020). It is co-funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and InnovationXchange (IXC), managed by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and in strategic collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) of Vietnam.

The second round of the programme with a combined amount of 2.4 million AUD is set to be launched later this year.