Winners of Aus4Innovation Partnership Grants announced

Hanoi, 09 October 2019 – Winners of the first round of the Innovation Partnership Grants, part of the Australian Government’s Aus4Innovation program, were announced today at an award ceremony held in Hanoi and hosted by Aus4Innovation and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Three projects, with allocated funding totaling more than AUD 1.6 million, were selected from 115 applications for their outstanding initiatives and potential positive economic and social impacts.

The three initiatives will be implemented by Australian universities in collaboration with universities and research institutes in Vietnam:

• University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Vietnamese National University of Engineering and Technology (VNU-UET), who will transfer of a university commercialisation model and demonstrate its application in water treatment and monitoring systems using industry 4.0 technology;
• University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) and Research Institute for Aquaculture number Three (RIA3), who will produce a hormone that will boost productivity of sea cucumber farming; and
• The University of Sydney and the National Health Strategy and Policy Institute (NHSPI), who will introduce a breakthrough methodology to transform breast cancer diagnostic efficacy.

Speaking at the ceremony, Ms. Rebecca Bryant, Charge d’Affaires a.i. of the Australian Embassy said: ‘Deeper, stronger ties between our innovation systems is a key goal for our strategic partnership with Vietnam and the Innovation Partnership Grants provide excellent opportunities to nurture innovative ideas and scale on-going partnerships between Australian and Vietnamese organisations. I’m delighted to see more and more collaboration between the research institutions of our two countries.’

Vice Minister Bui The Duy from the Ministry of Science and Technology commented: ‘The innovation partnership between Australia and Vietnam has proven to be an effective mechanism for the two countries to share best practice and models to enhance the innovation systems in both countries. We hope grants provided under the Aus4Innovation program will set examples of how innovation – particularly when it can jointly developed and implemented – can transform our society and deliver economic, social and environmental sustainability.’

Earlier this year, the Aus4Innovation program launched the first round of Innovation Partnership Grants, aimed at providing financial support to help scale already tested activities that address emerging challenges or opportunities in any sector of Vietnam’s innovation system. Round two will be announced later this year.

This is an important part of the AUD 11 million, four year (2018-2022) flagship Aus4Innovation program to help strengthen the Vietnamese innovation system and prepare for Vietnam’s economic and digital future. 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 of Vietnam (MoST)./.