Criteria for selecting PhD students to receive funding of one billion VND per year

This is the main content of the “Excellent PhD student support program for the period 2026-2030” (VREF) issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Share with VnExpress, Mr. Dao Ngoc Chien, Director of the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development, said that the concept of “excellent PhD student” is quantified by specific criteria right from the beginning. To be selected, candidates must meet four main criteria.

First, the quality of the research proposal must be creative, groundbreaking and clearly demonstrate novelty. Besides, there are specific capabilities of each graduate student. The remaining two criteria are related to the academic environment, such as the capacity of the doctoral student’s supervisor and the conditions of physical and technical facilities serving the host unit’s research activities.

The criteria are considered as a whole during the selection process according to the competitive mechanism. Profiles in the same field will be evaluated, ranked and selected by the council from high to low. Mr. Chien said the program was built with the view that graduate students are the central force of research activities, aiming to “conduct in-depth research and create breakthroughs in science and technology”. Accordingly, graduate students must participate substantially and play a key role in research tasks.

Not only does the program tighten input, the program also places high requirements on output results. After receiving support, PhD students must have published in prestigious international journals, in the Q1 group (top 25% in the world), or must have created an invention. According to a representative of the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development, this is a measure that shows the quality of both graduate students, instructors and training facilities.

The maximum support level of one billion VND per year is a notable point of the program. Mr. Chien assessed that the high level of support funding helps researchers feel secure and not worry about their lives, while increasing the autonomy of training institutions. However, this is not an equal allocation, but is paid for research fees, raw materials, costs for participating in international conferences and seminars, fees for publishing scientific articles…

Funding is built based on specific estimates and approved by the board. “This is the maximum level, not everyone will receive one billion VND,” the Fund Director emphasized.

With the question “Is one billion VND enough”, he said it is necessary to understand the program’s goals correctly. This is an amount to support graduate students doing research, not an expense for a full scientific project. If PhD students want to carry out large, interdisciplinary projects, they can apply for funding through scientific projects.

The program also applies a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating progress. The Fund will monitor each stage and handle according to regulations if the output results do not meet requirements. In cases where PhD students have followed the correct process but have not achieved the expected results, their funding will not be recovered. But if there is intentional wrongdoing, graduate students will be prosecuted according to the law.

This is the first time the Ministry of Science and Technology has implemented a support program specifically for graduate students, with the expectation of creating a core research force, participating in the development of strategic technology products. The goal of the program is to form about 20 strong research groups nationwide.

The VREF program is expected to recruit about 100 graduate students each year, supporting a maximum of one billion VND per year for no more than 3 years, marking a transition from training support to direct investment in research activities, in order to form a young scientific force capable of technological autonomy.