Building commercialisation capability

This Science Commercialisation Partnership (SCP) pathway is about building skills, experience and institutional capacity in science commercialisation and industry collaboration in Vietnam’s public research institutions.

It addresses both institutional interest in building these capabilities, and broader interest in supporting commercialisation and collaboration across the country.

SCP’s partner institutions for this pathway are Can Tho University (CTU), the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) and the Vietnam National University for Agriculture (VNUA).

SCP invests in three key activities in this pathway:

Developing individual capability

SCP runs a Commercialisation PLUS Training-of-Trainers program (TOT) for Tech Transfer Office staff in partner universities.

An initial training pilot incorporating technical skills (for example, intellectual property considerations, creating business models, conducting market analysis) and people skills (for example, partnership brokering, creating impact pathways, gender and social inclusion) was delivered in 2019 to equip participants with tools and knowledge in commercialisation for sustainable impact.

SCP and TOT alumni are now co-designing and co-delivering a training program for researchers in each university, and will then revise and improve the program for use beyond Aus4Innovation.

Building institutional capacity

SCP and NATEC are partnering with Tech Transfer Offices in each institution to support their specific science commercialisation needs.

VAST, SCP and NATEC are working together to develop VAST’s ten-year commercialisation strategy, which will incorporate economic, social and environmental aspects of commercialisation.

VNUA recently announced the establishment of a new Innovation and Commercialisation Centre at the university. SCP and NATEC are supporting the new Centre through Commercialisation PLUS training for staff and upgrading commercialisation processes and systems.

CTU, SCP and NATEC are partnering to identify and articulate industry-relevant information about CTU’s institutional capability.

In addition, SCP is supporting a data platform for NATEC and the universities to collect and coordinate information about institutional capabilities.

Creating national guidance

SCP and NATEC are co-developing the first national Commercialisation How-to Guide. The Guide is based on global best practice for commercialising agriculture and food technology for sustainable outcomes, and incorporates SCP examples and experiences for relevance in Vietnamese context, culture and innovation capacity.