The Research Townhall held on 26 December 2025 highlighted significant achievements and updates across various research initiatives. Key collaborations included partnerships with VinFuture and Nobel Laureate Prof. Omar Yaghi, as well as major alliances such as VinUni with NAFOSTED and VinFast. The Accelerating Research Excellence Program (AREP) was launched, issuing three RISE calls, and external funding reached VND 38 billion in 2025. Publications for the academic year 2025–2026 totaled 280, achieving 47% of the target, while citations from 2021 to 2026 reached 6,200, representing 78% of the goal.
The RISE Centers operate under a 3P Architecture focusing on Planet, People, and Prosperity. Approved centers include Green-X, CEI, and CMIT for Planet; IHS for People; and BDR and CAIR for Prosperity, with an initial investment of USD 26 million for six centers expecting 1,112 publications within the first 18 months. Additional centers such as EdTech, Heritage Futures, Innovation Hub, and Sustainable Energy are in progress. Calls for proposals have been issued for several centers, with timelines extending into the academic year 2025–2026.
Updates on open calls include the AREP offering up to $100,000 per project, receiving 41 submissions totaling $3.8 million. The pre-screening phase is complete, and scientific evaluations are ongoing, with shortlisted proposals expected to be announced in early January. The Seed Grant Program continues with rolling submissions up to $20,000 per project, awarding 15 grants in September and reviewing 10 proposals in November, encouraging new applicants as the budget remains underutilized.
Research infrastructure enhancements feature two NVIDIA H100 GPU clusters with 16 GPUs and 100 TB of storage, accessible via VPN with technical support. Usage guidelines and fair allocation mechanisms are forthcoming, with costs to be included in research project budgets. Dr. Pham Huy Hieu serves as the contact for these resources.
Several research guidelines and policies have been issued, including Intellectual Property Policy, Academic Affiliations, Research Excellence Award Framework, and Research Integrity Policy. Policies under development include Postdoc Management and additional guidelines on affiliations and recognition. The Research Integrity Policy mandates compliance from all faculty, requires Conflict of Interest declarations, and establishes workflows for handling misconduct allegations.
The Research Info Portal on SharePoint provides access to policies, finance guidelines, training materials, and computing resources, including a Scopus publication tracking dashboard. The Research Profile App, available on desktop, allows updates to Scopus ID, Google Scholar, ORCID, grants, awards, and soon non-Scopus publications and intellectual property, with monthly reminders for updates.
Recent updates from the last townhall include the availability of GPU infrastructure with disseminated guidelines, MOUs signed with VinFast and other institutions for shared equipment, review and pending approval of the IP policy, underutilization of APC support with only 15% spent, and ongoing implementation of Conflict of Interest policies with seminars on research integrity conducted.
Q&A highlights encouraged faculty to apply for seed grants with allowance for multiple submissions based on time allocation, emphasized budgeting APC support within research center proposals with central support reserved for exceptions, shared GPU access instructions with further updates forthcoming, and discussed journal rankings and APC eligibility with limited exceptions.This recap consolidates all key points from the slides and transcript for easy reference.