Networks 2019 Phase 2 Vietnam Bioscience

In second phase, the programme is to intensify and to develop a university/institute network between Vietnamese and Flemish universities to participate in development of joint degree MSc programme and research based education programme in Biosciences for Food. Can Tho University will collaborate with other universities and institutes spread over from the North to South in Vietnam to form up a network to cooperate with the Flemish universities in an interdisciplinary approach. The programme will focus on development of the curricula for joint degree MSc courses in Aquaculture and Food Technology. The developed curricula based on joining efforts of five Vietnamese universities/institutes and two Flemish universities will be continued to manage and implement alternately in Vietnam. The contents of the curricula will be updated and modified under a harmonized combination of strength of each partner in the interdisciplinary way. Students will have more chances to take courses or conduct graduation theses at the different university partners involved in the network, especially in Belgium.

In next five years, in Vietnam, Aquaculture and Food Technology are also two very important economic sectors due to its rapid growth and contribution to total national production. Aquaculture is expected to be essential to meet future demand for aquatic products. In the strategy of agricultural restructure in the Mekong delta, Vietnam, aquaculture plays a very important role and in the first order, then fruit tree and third is a rice cultivation. Nowadays, research in aquaculture is also very dynamic. While Vietnam is an agricultural country with about 75% population living in the rural area, its agricultural production is not only to serve the local people but also to supply the world in terms of food security, food safety, and food reserve.

With the achievement, development and strong points in manpower and facilities in the present past five years, CTU has been contributing significantly to development of aquaculture in the region. However, the rates of improvements have not completely kept pace with the training demand of human resources for the area. Today, the network system has been developed, however it is still in a low level in most of the fields between institutions as well as between institutions and enterprises and farmers. During the last years, ViFINET and VBFoodNet have been established which are initiatives for collaborative networking. Members of ViFINET and VBFoodNet are all universities/institutes involving in Aquaculture and Food Technology development of the country and all engage in sharing, exchanging training and research within the networks which have contributed to the success of phase 1. However there still no prominent and efficient activity taken place as yet. Linkage between institutions among the VIFINet and VBFoodNet should be reactivated to connect all the strength of partners for sustainable development of aquaculture in Vietnam as well as for sustainable aquaculture production of the world continuously in phase II.