To build on the combined strengths of academic research groups within India and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, both the countries will soon begin collaborative multi-disciplinary research in the areas biotechnology including medical biotechnology and animal biotechnology.

The programme is open to Indian and Vietnamese researchers regularly employed in Indian or Vietnamese public funded institutions that perform research and development (R&D) activities. This includes universities, academic institutions and research institutions. Industrial involvement in the collaborative projects will also be encouraged.

The department of biotechnology, ministry of science and technology, government of India and ministry of science and technology, Socialist Republic of Vietnam will be the funding agencies of India and Vietnam, respectively and all applicants must fulfill eligibility rules applied by each funding agency.

The purpose of the research programme is to build on the combined strengths of academic research groups within India and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam work together on collaborative multi-disciplinary research in the areas of medical biotechnology, animal biotechnology (including aquaculture), agriculture biotechnology, environmental and industrial biotechnology.

In the priority research area of medical biotechnology, the researchers should develop in vitro molecular diagnostic assays for various infectious and non-infectious diseases of relevance to India and Vietnam; develop vaccines for various infectious diseases including technology transfer for co-production in both the countries; and evaluate bioactive compounds from plants/ microbes for their application.

Any intellectual property rights (IPR) arising from cooperative activities under this joint research programme will be regulated in accordance with the relevant laws of two countries.