The Party and State have constantly underscored the significance of strengthening basic research because the bedrock of scientific and technological growth. The Politburo’s Resolution No.57-NQ/TW, issued on December 22, 2024, on breakthroughs in science and know-how, innovation and nationwide digital transformation, identifies funding in basic research as a long-term dedication very important to sustainable growth.
According to Prof., Dr. Tran Tuan Anh, Vice President of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), Vietnam can’t obtain its ambition of changing into a high-income developed nation by relying solely on know-how outsourcing. Instead, it should construct the capability to generate new information and core applied sciences, with basic research serving as the place to begin for technological mastery.
Vietnam has recorded encouraging progress lately. The VAST revealed 2,437 scientific papers in 2025, together with 1,699 in worldwide journals. Research has expanded throughout a variety of disciplines, from arithmetic and theoretical sciences to semiconductors, power, and utilized physics by way of initiatives funded by the State, the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) and the Vingroup Innovation Foundation (VINIF).
Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU Hanoi), has additionally aligned its growth technique with Resolution 57. Between 2021 and 2025, its researchers produced greater than 10,500 Web of Science- and Scopus-indexed publications and established 50 robust research teams, together with 33 specializing in basic research.
In the primary 5 months of 2026, VNU Hanoi scientists revealed 1,088 WoS- and Scopus-indexed papers. Of these, 67% appeared in Q1 and Q2 journals, greater than 31% concerned worldwide collaboration, and almost 6,300 researchers participated in scientific initiatives.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Minh, former rector of the Hanoi National University of Education, stated basic research not solely generates new information but in addition fosters innovation and improves the standard of financial development. Vietnam’s rising research capability has enhanced its regional and worldwide standing whereas contributing to sustainable growth, strategic autonomy, nationwide protection and governance.
Removing bottlenecks
Despite these achievements, consultants stated basic research continues to face main obstacles. Investment stays modest, whereas Vietnam has but to construct a powerful nationwide research ecosystem. Fragmented research actions, weak institutional linkages, a scarcity of internationally acknowledged research teams, and restricted world-class laboratories proceed to hamper progress.
Experts careworn that basic research ought to not be considered as a purely tutorial pursuit however as an integral a part of strategic know-how growth, offering the information base for future innovation and utilized research.
Prof., Dr. Tran Dai Lam, Director of the VAST’s Institute of Materials Science, stated researchers ought to align their work with nationwide priorities and enterprise wants whereas selling interdisciplinary cooperation to construct stronger scientific communities.
VAST President Prof. Dr. Tran Hong Thai known as for long-term nationwide science and know-how packages backed by secure funding and analysis based mostly on substantive milestones reasonably than annual price range cycles. He additionally proposed shifting from a supply-driven to a demand-driven research mannequin, underneath which the State and companies determine precedence challenges earlier than commissioning research groups.
At a latest assembly of the Standing Board of the Central Steering Committee for Science, Technology, Innovation and Digital Transformation, Party General Secretary and State President To Lam careworn the necessity to take away institutional bottlenecks, enhance the authorized framework for basic research and undertake a longer-term imaginative and prescient, describing funding in information creation as laying the inspiration for Vietnam’s growth within the a long time forward.
Source: VNA