PARTNER RELEASE - Hanoi, 16 September 2020 - Five new projects receiving funding through Innovation Partnership Grants, part of the Australian Government's Aus4Innovation program, were announced today.
These projects, which are co-led by teams from Australia and Vietnam, were the most outstanding among the 82 applications submitted. With funding of more than AUD 1.6 million, these partnerships will be able to scale up their innovative ideas and create sustainable economic and social impact.
The five projects will utilise technologies and experiences from Australia, and local know-how of Vietnam, to build on existing proven results across a range of priority technology and development sectors:
- A start-up acceleration program focusing on the agriculture sector providing start-ups with access to innovations and finance by Beanstalk – an Australian innovation agency and Mekong Business Initiative (AUD 386,500)
- The cooling chain for vegetables from Son La province to urban markets by Applied Horticultural Research and Fresh Studio (AUD 298,985)
- Technology to create high value products from catfish by-products developed by Western Sydney University and Research Institute for Aquaculture No.2 (AUD 478,824)
- A sensor network for flood monitoring in Ho Chi Minh City as transferred from Griffith University to Saigon High Tech Park (AUD 400,000)
- An environment monitoring system for mangrove aquaculture in Ca Mau developed by The University of Queensland and Green Field Consulting & Development (AUD 500,623).
Congratulating the winners, H.E. Ms Robyn Mudie, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam said: "In this time of uncertainty, I greatly appreciate the joint efforts of Australian and Vietnamese organizations, including universities, research agencies, and businesses to continue to find ways to innovate, collaborate, implement and diffuse your excellent ideas. I am confident that these initiatives will deliver lasting socioeconomic impacts. They will also seed even deeper relationships that will enable Australia and Vietnam to access the innovative opportunities of the future together"
"I am delighted to witness another successful funding round of Aus4Innovation Partnership Grants. Selected initiatives are diverse sector-wise and also represent well the challenges and opportunities in our growing economy. It is also exciting to see a much stronger engagement of private sector representatives in this round, promising a higher applicability of the innovative ideas. As we look to the future, we should hope that best practices and models from these projects will be widely scaled up and replicated to enhance the innovation ecosystem of Vietnam." Vice Minister Bui The Duy from the Ministry of Science and Technology added.
This second round of Aus4Innovation Partnership Grants follows the successful first round in 2019. The three projects funded in 2019 received a total of more than 1.63 million AUD. Updates on the grant projects can be found on the project website.
Aus4Innovation Partnership Grants 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)./.
