NAFOSTED International Cooperation Program

NAFOSTED's International Cooperation Program is the umbrella line for bilateral research funding with more than 10 foreign science agencies. It is administered by the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development in Vietnam and sits alongside the foundation's domestic basic-research portfolio as the route for cross-border joint projects. Each bilateral stream sets its own cadence, usually annual and sometimes biennial, and Vietnamese applicants submit through NAFOSTED's online management system while partner-country requirements are handled in parallel. The program already covers FWO in Belgium, DFG in Germany, SNSF in Switzerland, UKRI in the United Kingdom, NHMRC in Australia for health, FOSTED in Laos, the British Council, the UK Academies, IFS in Sweden, and a 2026 Japan semiconductor track, with the new AVSTICI framework also in the mix. The key eligibility rule is simple: bilateral partnership is mandatory, so single-country submissions are not considered. Vietnamese-side costs follow the relevant finance and science circulars, which makes the program best suited to groups that already have a foreign counterpart, a shared research agenda, and the administrative discipline to clear two systems at once.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.