[Podcast] Research on readiness level regarding innovation activity implementation at Universities in Vietnam

18 February, 2025

Keywords: innovation, sustainable development, innovation ecosystem, higher education, SMARTI model.

This research from Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics (UEH) focuses on analyzing a model combining innovation and higher education to meet the needs of sustainable development. To ensure the sustainability of this ecosystem, Universities need to have a clear development strategy, to diversify financial sources, to improve human resource capacity and international cooperation.

The innovation ecosystem for sustainability not only includes close interactions between stakeholders in the public, private and academic sectors but also must flexibly adapt to the changes in the external environment (Costa & Matias, 2020). In this context, universities play an extremely important role as they both train high-quality human resources and act as technology research and development centers. Research and technology transfer from universities create significant economic value and improve quality of life (Giddings et. al., 2002). In addition, universities play a role in connecting community networks and promoting actions for sustainable development through organizing seminars, events and cooperation programs, creating a favorable environment for knowledge exchange and cooperation between stakeholders (Boons & Ldeke-Freund, 2013). Universities are being and will create a sustainable innovation ecosystem, in which sustainable initiatives are both developed and implemented effectively.

The fact that this combination not only meets current requirements but also prepares for the future ensures that the innovation ecosystem can adapt and thrive in an ever-changing world. Therefore, developing innovation ecosystems for sustainable goals requires the active participation and close cooperation of universities along with other stakeholders. The need to promote innovation for sustainable development is an inevitable trend of every economy and Vietnam is not an exception. The role of universities is extremely essential in the national innovation system.

Current status of start-up and innovation activities at universities, colleges and academies in Vietnam

In the recent years, universities, colleges and academies in Vietnam have increasingly actively participated in activities to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. The attention and the support from the Government has been completely enormous as follows: the issuance of Resolution No. 14/2005/NQ-CP in 2005 for universities to promote innovation development, Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Term XI, towards the direction of “Innovating the education system according to an open, flexible model, strengthening connections between educational levels and methods of education and training”. In accordance with the author’s statistics, Vietnam has had more than 40 educational institutions that have established specialized units in charge of startup activities, innovation and science and technology transfer. Units operating in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation at educational institutions are established with different operating models, organizational structures and forms of establishment. Some popular models are as follows: Business incubation centers, Startup support departments, Research institutes and so on. The activities of these units mainly focus on short-term training and education programs to equip students with knowledge, to organize seminars with the purpose of encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit for students and fostering projects to participate in Innovative Startup Idea Competitions at all levels or organizing competitions to find startup ideas at the local scale.

Some universities that have invested in shared workspaces and develop professional incubation programs can be listed as follows: Ho Chi Minh City National University. Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi National University, Foreign Trade University, National Economics University, Nguyen Tat Thanh University. Only a few schools like Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics have a fairly complete innovation ecosystem upon coordinating resources in educational institutions according to strategic orientation and combining with foreign partners to support startup projects, science and technology transfer activities and investment in technology companies.

Therefore, the above situation indicates that startup and innovation organizations at universities, colleges and academies have achieved uncountable achievements in a not a too-long period of time. To be listed in details: It has been rather successfully implementing activities to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of students through organizing startup competitions, searching for innovative ideas and especially participating in competitions for students with startup ideas organized by the Ministry of Education and Training. Well-organized startup competitions have created an environment that promotes the entrepreneurial spirit and supports students in developing ideas. Concurrently, the support from Ministry/State level programs and projects has provided important resources, helping these organizations strengthen their capacity and effectively support student startups. Universities and colleges in other mountainous or remote areas are also facilitated to receive support from non-governmental organizations (UNDP, Aus4Inno, USAID and more) to improve students’ capacity in entrepreneurship and innovation activities.

On the other hand, the innovation ecosystem at universities and colleges is facing numerous challenges as follows:

– Innovation centers at universities need to have a development strategy and to combine resources in order to effectively support startups and innovation. This is the biggest challenge as this requires a clear determination of the development strategy of innovation organizations which must be synchronized with the general strategy of universities. The lack of synchronization between the center’s or institute’s strategy and the general strategy of the universities can lead to conflicts in goals and resource allocation, resulting in the situation, in which the implementation of programs and projects is very difficult.

– Although investment in science, technology and innovation brings some added value to the organization, it also has the attributes of public goods because the characteristics of science, technology and innovation require high investment costs. Therefore, there are not sufficient resources besides mechanism lack to invest in science, technology and innovation, especially for autonomous public units.

– Lack of financial resources, human resources and facilities is another common challenge for innovation centers at universities. Limited financial resources and high competition in receiving grants make it difficult for many units to organize startup support programs.

– The lack of experienced personnel and difficulties in attracting talent because of insufficient attractive remuneration reduces the effectiveness of consulting and managing startup activities.

– Infrastructure has not been invested appropriately and maintenance costs are high, resulting in the fact that many units not to have enough working space to incubate innovative start-up ideas in fields with technology applications. This leads to the fact that those startup ideas developed from schools are not being fully supported, or only stopping at participating in competitions or lacking new investment capital sources to continue developing beyond the Valley of Death stage.

– In this globalization context, innovation centers at universities face a great challenge in protecting startups’ initiatives and products/services from international competition besides the risk of losing technology to other countries. Competition for talent and technology, along with an incomplete intellectual property protection system and weak commercialization capabilities, are those issues that need to be resolved in order to maintain and to develop domestic start-up initiatives and scientific and technological research products.

– In terms of the shortage of human resources for science, technology and innovation: science, technology and innovation activities require highly-qualified human resources, especially in complex engineering and science. Universities are oriented towards social science and administrative programs. Primary and secondary education does not adhere to a clear strategy to strengthen the roles of mathematics and basic science. Creativity and innovation are hardly included in the curriculum.

– Science, technology and innovation activities of organizations in the national innovation system are being weak. Universities mainly focus on teaching or conducting basic scientific research whereas they do have weak links with businesses.

Recommended solutions

From the above analysis, the author group proposes some solution recommendations as follows:

Firstly, it is necessary to improve the legal system related to startup policies. In particular, it is necessary to quickly and resolutely to reform and to reduce administrative procedures, creating favorable conditions for the startup culture to thrive. Innovative business and entrepreneurship policies can be identified as policies that seek to improve the business environment for current and future businesses. They can be grouped into 3 types as follows:

(1) Policies that guide the identification of opportunities and attention to conditions: (a) sustainability orientation; (b) identification of sustainable opportunities and mobilize resources; (c) collaborative action and innovation towards sustainable opportunities; and (d) markets for sustainable products/services.

(2) Policies that facilitate market entry and allow companies to test new technologies and business models: They are mainly competition policies (e.g., Antitrust Laws), business regulations (e.g., administrative burdens on startups, regulations that affect sustainable growth, bankruptcy laws), taxes (e.g., taxes, licenses and fees required of new companies), labor market policies (e.g., labor protection laws labor) and social security rules (e.g. Non-wage labor costs and social insurance regimes).

(3) Policies affecting market opportunities can be listed as follows: policies affecting technological development, public procurement and corporate finance provision (especially equity investment finance), or programs providing information and advice on expansion and internationalization.

These policies need to ensure consistency and to compliance with international practices.

Secondly, there needs to be a policy to strengthen the connection between universities and businesses. It is to create a communication channel or network of links between businesses and universities (with the role of collecting, updating data, consulting and providing information) and to improve programs and support mechanisms for businesses to innovate and to apply new technology from university research activities. The government and those universities need to have policies to promote forms of cooperation between universities and businesses. Policies need to focus on the following forms of cooperation: (1) Cooperation in research; (2) Commercialization of research results; (3) Student mobility promotion; (4) Promoting the movement and the circulation of academics; (5) University administration participation.

Thirdly, it is necessary to complete the legal corridor system for the commercialization of scientific and technological results. It is crucial to supplement a number of key innovation policies as follows: supporting innovation with appropriate mechanisms and incentives, removing barriers to innovative ideas, establishing appropriate research structures, nurturing the innovation spirit in the social community and making it easy to absorb through appropriate education systems.

This article is a product of the Ministerial Science and Technology Project sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Author: Associate Professor, PhD. Phan Thi Bich Nguyet – Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics (UEH)

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News and photos: Author, UEH Department of Communications and Partnerships