‘Scientists receive an average of 50 million VND for research each year’

At the National Assembly discussion session on the morning of November 5, Professor Le Quan, Director of Hanoi National University, acknowledged that funding for scientific topics is very scattered and fragmented.

He said for example that the science and technology funding poured into Hanoi National University this year was about 70 billion VND. With nearly 2,500 scientists, including 72 professors and 482 associate professors, after deducting some regular expenses, on average each person receives about 50 million VND for research.

According to Mr. Quan, for the country to make a breakthrough in innovation, it is necessary to place trust in scientists and have a long-term orientation. Therefore, he proposed to innovate the funding allocation mechanism for this field.

“Funding for researchers, according to scientific units, needs to be a full investment with long-term norms,” ​​he said. “The current process is to approve the topic each year, through the Ministry of Science and Technology, then to the National Assembly, so there is a lot of planning involved.”

Delegate Nguyen Quang Huan, Binh Duong delegation, agreed. He said that in addition to the budget, it is necessary to promote the role of the Science, Technology and Innovation Fund. These two funds have revenue from business contributions. If done well, collected correctly, collected enough, this can be a huge resource.

According to the provisions of the Law on Science and Technology, state-owned enterprises are allowed to deduct a maximum of 10% of their annual taxable income to set up the enterprise’s Science and Technology Development Fund. However, spending money from this Fund is currently difficult.

Previously, Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat said that relevant agencies are making many moves to overcome difficulties in financial mechanisms in this field. The Government assigned the Ministry of Finance to amend Decree 70 in the direction of openness and transparency, respecting the characteristics of scientific research that accept risks. At the same time, the Ministry is also proposing to develop a new decree on a financial autonomy mechanism for science and technology research units.

The Ministry of Science and Technology is developing a draft to amend and supplement Decree 95/2014/ND-CP regulating investment and financial mechanisms for science and technology activities. Mr. Nguyen Nam Hai, Director of the Department of Financial Planning, Ministry of Science and Technology, said that the drafting agency aims to remove 3-4 groups of policies on financial mechanisms. The draft aims to remove obstacles in the use of regular funding sources for investment in procurement infrastructure and research infrastructure of academic institutions.