Seminar on the VinFuture Foundation’s Activities and Meeting with the Austrian Expert Delegation
On the morning of October 24, 2025, at Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy (CTUMP organized a seminar to share information about the activities of the VinFuture Foundation and to host a working session with an expert delegation from Austria.
Mr. Pham Van Luan, senior secretary of the VinFuture Foundation, introduced the Foundation’s mission, funding programs, and provided detailed explanations regarding application requirements, partnerships, reporting procedures, and the proposal process. The seminar informed the University’s faculties and units about opportunities to develop academic projects and seek funding sources to enhance international collaboration and partnerships.
Mr. Pham Van Luan - Senior Secretary of Vin Future introduces the Fund's activities
Presentation by the VinFuture Foundation Representative
VinFuture is widely recognized for its global science and technology award system. However, beyond its prizes, the Foundation also operates three key support programs designed for educational institutions, research institutes, and scientific groups within Vietnam:
- VinFuture Prize – includes one Grand Prize worth USD 3 million and three Special Prizes worth USD 500,000 each, awarded annually in December.
- Grant-Making – Support for Development & Transfer – focuses on accelerating projects that already have commercially viable products, helping them reach implementation readiness by completing trials, standardizing procedures, finalizing intellectual property documents, and facilitating technology transfer or commercialization.
- InnovaConnect – International Expert Exchange – enables the invitation of top international scholars and speakers to Vietnam for specialized seminars and workshops, supports joint research development, and co-creates collaborative proposals.
- Partnerships – Sustainable Collaboration – promotes the formation of strategic partnerships among universities, research institutes, enterprises, and innovation ecosystems. These may include joint laboratories, R&D projects, co-funded research, internships, and co-supervised PhD programs aimed at producing market-ready innovations and strengthening long-term technology transfer capacity.
Participants engaged in open discussions and exchanged ideas during the seminar.
Delegates attending the seminar took a souvenir photo with the reporter
From the discussion at the introduction session, the Fund recommended preparing documents early (about 8-12 weeks before the expected implementation date), presenting briefly and focusing on (goals, outputs, plans - milestones, evaluation indicators, budget according to goals, risks & options). Units can propose many forms at the same time (for example, inviting experts through InnovaConnect to co-build Grant-making, moving towards Partnerships).
On this occasion, Vin Future Fund supported the invitation of 03 Austrian experts to work and discuss cooperation opportunities between Faculties/units with partners in Austria including:
1. Prof. Maria Kletecka-Pulker - Director of Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety (LBI-DHPS), Vienna, Austria.
2. Dr. Katharina Schmidt - Danube Private University, Austria
3. Dr. Gernot Gerger - Research Group Leader at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety (LBI-DHPS), Vienna, Austria.
Dr. Gernot Gerger - Head of the research group at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety (LBI-DHPS), Vienna, Austria.
Representatives of the leaders of the University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, Faculty of Basic Sciences and a number of units had open discussions on cooperation directions with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety (LBI-DHPS) and Danube Private University, Austria such as smart medicine, patient safety, research areas on patient self-determination, multilingual interpretation in medicine, etc.
Delegates from units of CTUMP exchanged and discussed
cooperation opportunities with experts
Delegates took souvenir photos with experts
External Relations Section - CTUMP Office
