Round two, the last round, of the Aus4Innovation Partnership Grants, a programme aimed at helping to strengthen Vietnam’s innovation system, was officially launched on February 11 with sponsorship funding of AUD2.32 million, according to the Australian Embassy in Vietnam.

The activity is a continuation of the success of the first round in 2019, which granted a sponsorship package worth more than AUD1.63 million to three projects: on water treatment technology and monitoring systems, on hormone production technology which helps raise sea cucumber farming’s productivity, and on breast cancer diagnosis.

Under the theme of “Replicating Vietnam-Australia Innovation Partnerships”, grants ranging from AUD100,000 to AUD1 million will be awarded to projects on a competitive scoring basis. Accordingly, innovation initiatives need to be tested and are ready to be replicated, with cooperation between a Vietnamese organisation and an Australian organization.

The projects should have the potential to bring about impacts in the innovation ecosystem. The winners of Aus4Innovation grants will have a maximum of 12 months to carry out their proposed activities.

“The second round of the Aus4Innovation Partnership Grants demonstrates our commitment to continue working with the Government of Vietnam to further promote the improvement of the innovation ecosystem. Just like in the first round, we look for initiatives in various fields that have the potential of being widely applied and bring long-term socio-economic impacts, thus helping to strengthen Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem,” said Robyn Mudie, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam.

According to Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy, the programmes such as Aus4Innovation will help Vietnam’s innovative ecosystem to be more complete, widely connected and efficient.

Vietnamese organisations who are interested must register no later than March 17. Details about the registration process will be available at the website: https://research.csiro.au/aus4innovation/.

The Innovation Partnership Grants are an important part of the AUD11 million Aus4Innovation programme being carried out over four years (2018-2020), aiming to help strengthen Vietnam’s innovation system and prepare for the country’s economic and digital future.