Conference to review state-level key program "Researching application and developing new materials technology”: Affirming high practical effectiveness of new research

The event drew the participation of Tran Van Tung, Permanent Deputy Minister of Science and Technology; Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Tuan Anh, Vice President of VAST; Mr. Ngo Sy Quoc, Deputy Director of the State-level Key Programs Office; Prof.Dr. Nguyen Viet Bac, Program Manager of KC.02/16-20; Dr. Nguyen Dinh Hau, Head of the Department of Science and Technology of Economic - Technical Branches; and scientists and experts in the field of materials technology.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Tuan Anh - Vice President of VAST made a speech at the conference

Speaking at the conference, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Tuan Anh, Vice President of VAST, emphasized that materials science and technology is an extremely important research direction, one of the seven priority research directions at VAST, with 5 research units, more than 500 staff directly doing research in the field related to materials science and technology and many specialized institutes related to materials science and technology, mineral deep processing, materials research for marine economic strategy, as well as materials for defense and security. In the 2016-2020 period, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Program Management Board, and research units of the Academy have been assigned to chair and successfully implement 04 topics, 01 pilot production project in a total of 24 topics and 06 pilot production projects of the Program, contributing a modest part to the success of the KC.02/16-20 Program.

Deputy Director of the Office of State-level Key Programs Ngo Sy Quoc said that the KC.02 Program was built with the goal of absorbing, applying and developing advanced technology to produce materials from all kinds of potential products, creating smart, environmentally friendly materials with special features serving the economic and national security sectors, and at the same time supporting the development of a number of raw material and new materials production lines. Despite difficulties during research, especially the impact caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic at the final stage of the program, most of the topics and projects were accepted, and many products were commercialized.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Viet Bac, Program Manager, made a speech at the Conference

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Viet Bac, the Program Manager said that after more than 5 years, KC.02 had completed 23 of 24 tasks, the remaining task will be completed in October this year. 24 products of the Program have been registered for protection of intellectual property rights, creating 135 technological solutions with practical application. In particular, 76 new materials are created, of which 15 new materials have been completed. The products of the Program have high scientific level and practical application.

A number of thematic reports were presented at the conference, such as: Warm recycled asphalt technology - a sustainable development solution for road construction by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dao Van Dong (University of Transport Technology); Materials for national defense and security, manufacturing technology and research and development orientation of Dr. Dao Duy Viet (Institute of Technology, General Department of Defense Industry); Perfecting the 99.99% tin production technology by electrolytic refining with diaphragms of Prof. Dao Duy Anh (Institute of Mining Science and Technology - Metallurgy, Ministry of Industry and Trade); Research and fabrication of conductive porous composite materials as electrodes for desalination equipment by CDI (Capacitive Deionization) technology: Some initial results and development prospects of Prof. Dr. Tran Dai Lam (Institute of Tropical Technology, VAST).   Prof. Dr. Tran Dai Lam also analyzed the advantages when implementing the application of the project, that is: Mastering the technology of manufacturing CDI equipment, CDI equipment can be flexibly applied from family to industrial scale, equipment with low energy consumption, with raw materials for making adsorbent materials being abundant, diversified, and available.

After listening to the reports, Permanent Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Van Tung said that KC.02 is a highly practical program. He highly appreciated the efforts of research groups in creating inventions, registering for intellectual property protection and forming two science and technology enterprises, contributing to human resource training. Deputy Minister Tung said that in the coming period, it is necessary to recognize problems, set out headlines and a management mechanism with an enterprise-centered orientation.

Permanent Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Van Tung makes a speech at the Conference

The Deputy Minister also suggested that there should be opinions from businesses, corporations, companies and industries in the field to solve the problems. In addition to research tasks, scientists need to calculate economic efficiency to attract investment businesses. He said, in order to create a direction and have a good title for the coming period, the Ministry of Science and Technology continues to restructure with content and solutions, manage and review the Program, so that scientists can  create  favorable conditions, and have peace of mind to study and live by their profession.

According to Dr. Nguyen Dinh Hau, Head of the Department of Science and Technology, at this stage, the tasks are more application-oriented, and businesses are more involved. In addition to the state budget, the mobilization of other resources from enterprises has been approximately the same. This is an improvement compared to the previous periods. However, there are two major problems with materials technology. That is, there are not many tasks of a large scale enough to create effects and the application of the results is still difficult, while the products created are not convincing enough for businesses.

In the period 2021-2025, in addition to continuing to develop the Program framework, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Hau proposed that applied science projects need to increase the task duration to a 10-year frame, because of the problems regarding materials, it also takes 5-10 years to produce a product.

In the near future, the successful implementation of Program KC.02/16-20 will contribute to society with high quality scientific products. The creation of advanced technological processes, new materials, and new scientific equipment at low prices is the foundation for improving the competitiveness of the final product, contributing to creating more jobs, increasing revenue and reducing environmental pollution in Vietnam.

Visiting pavilions at the Conference

Taking photo

Translated by Tuyet Nhung
Link to Vietnamese version