On March 8th 2016, Hanoi, the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes) have signed a cooperation agreement between the two countries. The agreement is expected to support and promote joint research, development and innovation in enterprise, science institution between Vietnam and Finland.
The signing and implementation of the contents of cooperation under this Memorandum in order to encourage the parties to search for and exploitation of the available resources to support, funding of collaborative business led innovation projects, between enterprises and research organizations in the areas where the two sides have the potential. The research organization, startup innovation, potential science and technology business of the two countries will have more opportunities to participate in technology transfer, collaborative joint research, and commercialization of results research, development production and business cooperation projects on the basis of win-win cooperation.
Through joint call, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the TEKES will jointly consider funding, supporting the joint research project, commercialization of technology, development of new products, new services, under the budget capacity of each party. National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development (NATEC) is the designated agency on behalf of the Ministry of Science and Technology to implement with TEKES of Finland. These two units will jointly discuss and recommend content, funding, supporting methods for cooperation projects between innovation companies in specific areas.
Finland is known as one of the leading countries in innovation. Vietnam is seen as a potential market for business in developing innovative products. The Government of Finland through BEAM program and TEKES Fund will consider funding for innovative projects of enterprises participating Finnish business partnership with Vietnam, aims to address the challenging issues in social - economic in Vietnam and Finland. Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam will consider funding for Vietnam's partners involved in the innovation cooperation project with Finnish businesses.
The aim of a joint call is to stimulate innovative and collaborative business-led innovation projects in addressing a specific market need or challenge, demonstrate high industrial relevance and commercial potential. The call for proposals for joint projects will be opened in Mid-August 2016. The proposals should have two lead companies - at least one from Vietnam and one from Finland. The call is open for companies with a special focus on the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Finnish participants are businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Vietnamese participants are Small and Medium Enterprises, innovative start-up business, innovative support organization.
The call for proposals is open to projects in the following challenge-based themes:
1) Health related food safety or water solutions
2) Waste treatment solutions
3) ICT solutions for education and innovation training
To prepare for the actual call, we are now seeking expression of interests from Vietnamese companies interested in participating the call and partnering with Finnish entities. This expression of interest (EOI) invitation aims at assisting Vietnamese-Finnish partners in joint proposal design, matchmaking and consortia forming for the upcoming call.
To express the company’s interest, please kindly fill the EIO-formand send to NATEC email address: [email protected] or for more information : [email protected], latest by August 15th 2016. NATEC representatives will be then in touch with the company for further actions – proposal design, partnering and matchmaking.