Date: October 17, 2025
Venue: I201, VinUniversity & Microsoft Teams (Hybrid)
Speakers:

• Laurent El Ghaoui, Vice Provost for Research and Innovation;
• Michelle Hermisson, Dean of the College of Health Sciences;
• Phan Manh Huong, Professor cum Chief Scientific Officer, Center for Materials Innovation and Technology and Senior Advisor of the Research Management Office (RMO);
• Prof. Pham Huy Hieu, Deputy Director of RMO;
• Pham Thi Phuong Oanh, RMO Grant Manager.

Guest Remarks: Dr. Le Mai Lan, President of VinUniversity.

On October 17, 2025, In VinUniversity campus, the AY25-26 Research Townhall was organized by the Research Management Office (RMO) to share key updates, address challenges, and strengthen collaboration across VinUni’s growing research ecosystem. The hybrid event welcomed faculty, researchers, and research administrators from all colleges and centers, both on campus and online, marking an important milestone in VinUni’s transformation toward becoming a research-intensive and innovation-driven university.

In his opening remarks, Professor Phan Manh Huong emphasized that the Town Hall aimed to foster open dialogue, transparency, and collective problem-solving. As VinUni transitions from a teaching-focused to a research-intensive institution, he noted that this process requires patience, adaptability, and a shared commitment to developing robust systems that empower faculty and researchers to conduct impactful, world-class research.

Professor Laurent El Ghaoui presented an overview of the university’s research landscape, introducing the restructured framework organized around three strategic pillars: Health Sciences, Environment, and Techno-societies. He stressed the importance of anchoring research activities within formal RISE Centers to enhance visibility and interdisciplinarity, while also encouraging the establishment of joint industry laboratories to promote innovation and long-term sustainability. To improve access to information and reduce administrative friction, RMO has been developing a centralized Research Portal on SharePoint, which will serve as a one-stop platform for policies, funding calls, and research procedures.

Ms. Pham Thi Phuong Oanh, RMO Grant Manager, followed with updates on internal funding mechanisms. She presented two key programs: the Seed Grant, offering up to USD 20,000 per project on a rolling basis, and the RISE Research Fund, providing between USD 50,000 and 500,000 for competitive, mission-aligned proposals. She also shared information on the Student Research Support, which allocates USD 95,000 for AY2025–2026 and has been decentralized to the Colleges for management. Another mechanism is APC support, which offers up to USD 3,000 per manuscript for Open Access publications not funded by external grants. She emphasized that the decentralization of grant review and approval to individual colleges would shorten processing time and better accommodate researchers’ needs.

Expanding on the theme of sustainability, Professor Michelle Hermisson and Professor Phan Manh Huong discussed external funding opportunities and the importance of developing self-sufficiency through international and domestic grants. They highlighted the use of the PIVOT-RP platform as an essential tool for identifying real time global funding opportunities and advised faculty to inform RMO early about limited-submission calls to avoid conflicts. Professor Huong reminded faculty of the need for Vietnam National IDs for eligibility to apply to national funding agencies and encouraged collaboration with existing faculty to enhance success rates.

Assistant Professor Pham Huy Hieu then shared updates on VinUni’s growing industry engagement and intellectual property management. He noted that several companies have shown increasing interest in collaborating with VinUni through joint R&D projects. To support this momentum, RMO is developing clear and consistent policies for managing industry-funded research, balancing flexibility to attract partners with strong institutional safeguards for intellectual property. The upcoming framework will define ownership structures, ranging from full VinUni ownership to co-ownership or negotiated arrangements, depending on project type and funding source.

The open Q&A session invited candid and constructive dialogue from faculty, who shared concerns about the slow processing of internal grants, limited research infrastructure and journal access, and administrative challenges such as procurement and data management tools. In response, President Le Mai Lan joined the discussion to address these points directly and announce several key commitments from university leadership. She confirmed a USD 300,000 investment in new on-premise high-performance computing (HPC) servers to be available by December 1, 2025, and a USD 1.5 million budget for cloud-based GPU resources launching on November 7, 2025. She also announced that Professor Yap Peng would lead the development of a simplified research policy framework to clarify funding procedures, approval processes, and exceptions, with a working version expected by October 30, 2025.

In support of research training and talent development, President Mai Lan revealed new stipend levels for graduate students approved by VinGroup: VND 15 million per month for Master’s candidates and 20–25 million for PhD students, along with support for conferences, travel, and international placements. She further emphasized VinUni’s commitment to transparency and communication, noting the development of a research dashboard to track pending requests and progress, as well as plans to introduce a regular research newsletter to improve information sharing across the university. “We are young, we are learning, and we are building this system together,” she said, highlighting the importance of collective effort and faculty feedback in shaping VinUni’s research culture.

The Research Townhall concluded on an optimistic note, with strong engagement from participants and clear commitments from leadership to address challenges in funding, infrastructure, and administrative processes. Faculty appreciated the open dialogue and reaffirmed their shared goal of building a thriving, transparent, and collaborative research environment. The AY25-26 Research Townhall thus marked a significant step forward in VinUni’s journey toward global research excellence and its long-term ambition of joining the world’s top 100 universities.

Acknowledgements

The Research Management Office sincerely thanks President Dr. Le Mai Lan, Prof. Phan Manh Huong, Prof. Laurent El Ghaoui, Prof. Michelle Hermisson, Asst. Prof. Hieu Pham, and Ms. Oanh Pham for their insightful presentations and dedicated leadership. Appreciation is also extended to all faculty, researchers, and participants whose active engagement and constructive feedback are helping to shape the next phase of VinUni’s research ecosystem.