Restructuring national science, technology and innovation programs

At the meeting on the afternoon of August 11 on the Project to Restructure science, technology and innovation programs for the period 2026-2035, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung requested to review and streamline tasks.

He requested to thoroughly handle previous problems, fully covering all activities, from basic research, applied research, technology development, innovation, especially commercialization.

The Deputy Prime Minister proposed restructuring all programs approved by the Government and ministries and branches. Programs that do not meet the goals and criteria after restructuring will not be approved further, to avoid wasting resources.

With ongoing programs, the Ministry of Science and Technology is assigned to coordinate with ministries and branches to carefully evaluate the implementation situation, necessity and effective organizational plans.

The Deputy Prime Minister also requested to change evaluation criteria from input control methods to effective output management. Evaluation criteria must be developed for each task and program group; Programs are centrally managed on a digital platform, and responsibilities are clearly assigned. The Ministry of Science and Technology is assigned to complete the Project, in the direction of serving national strategies, promoting growth and development of the country.

The Ministry of Science and Technology is assigned to preside over the development of the Project “Restructuring national science, technology and innovation programs for the period 2026-2035” (Project).

Reporting at the conference, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Xuan Dinh said that in the period 2016-2025, the national science and technology program system is the main tool for the State to implement priority orientations. However, the current system, with fragmented and scattered programs and tasks, has not become a tool to address the country’s major development goals.

According to the Deputy Minister, the determination of tasks still favors bottom-up proposals, and has not yet formed a connecting chain from basic research, applied research, technology development to innovation and commercialization. The role of businesses is still limited; while the coordination mechanism between programs, ministries and branches is not strong enough.

Accordingly, the restructuring project plans to organize research programs into 6 groups, including basic research; national key programs; special national programs and strategic technology; national innovation; develop national science, technology and innovation potential; national number conversion.

In particular, the basic research group focuses on creating new knowledge and scientific foundations. The national key program group solves major, interdisciplinary problems that impact socio-economic development and national governance. The special national program and strategic technology group focuses on mastering, developing, testing, applying and commercializing core and strategic technologies.

The remaining three groups aim to support businesses to innovate and apply technology; develop high-quality human resources, strong research institutions and technical infrastructure; developing digital technology, data infrastructure, shared digital platforms and solutions serving digital government, digital economy, digital society and digital governance.

According to the Project, the grouping is intended to orient priorities, focus resources, monitor, evaluate and coordinate on a national scale, but does not change the type of program, approval authority, presiding agency, management mechanism and responsibility for organizing the implementation of each program.

The project aims to have 100% of the program monitored and evaluated on a digital platform; Master core technology and form at least 20 key national products and strategic technology products by 2030. By 2035, complete and commercialize on an industrial scale at least 50 internationally competitive products.

By the end of 2025, the country will have 42 national-level programs, implementing about 4,800 tasks, with a total budget from the state budget of nearly 17,000 billion VND. According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the programs have maintained Vietnam’s research capacity and developed the scientific team.

The results of the programs are also recorded with over 6,670 international publications under WoS/Scopus, creating nearly 200 inventions, intellectual property, more than 450 technologies and processes; Over 170 devices, machines and nearly 70 products are commercialized or applied in practice.