VietNamNet Bridge – What have scientific research been used for? Many research results never leave the shelf.

Phan Kim Ngoc, MA, from the HCM City University of Natural Sciences under the HCM City National University, said that very few scientific research results have been put into applications. A lot of good scientific research has been “put on the shelf” after being checked and recognized by the scientific council, even if they had several useful applications. Ngoc pointed out that this has “killed” the enthusiasm of scientists.

However, it is undeniable that many works cannot be applied in reality and were forgotten soon after the projects were introduced. Dr Nguyen Thi Can from the Law-Economics University under the HCM City National University, said that there are many problems with scientific research at universities.

In many cases, the same scientific research project was carried out by different units, but  the units do not exchange results or views in order to obtain best solutions.

Since universities and research institutions do not have close relations and do not have regular exchanges, it is common that research overlaps. A lack of a proper management system is to blame.

In general, the research themes at the ministerial and university levels are often suggested by lecturers and researchers, while the beneficiaries are unclear. As research works do not have a targeted audience, they do not serve anyone, and only can help researchers increase the number of their research projects, which universities take into consideration when deciding to promote researchers.

Currently, the budget for every project at the ministerial level is limited at just 20-70 million dong.   Therefore, it is nearly impossible to carry out experiments. That explains why the quality of scientific research remains modest.

Why have bad quality and unrealistic scientific research works been recognized as scientific research? It is because the scientists who consider doing research are too complacent. It seems that Vietnamese scientists have a habit of giving compliments instead of giving constructive criticism.

Are scientific research projects favors?

Le Thi Tuyet Hanh from the Education Management Institute, said that scientific research projects have been divided equally to different universities and different faculties. And all of them have the right to get the “favors”. Of course, the biggest scientific research projects that cost hundreds of million dong are always allocated to VIPs and those lecturers who have high degrees.

Hanh said that since scientific research works are considered a kind of “favor”, researchers need to be keen on lobbying to get the projects. Therefore, whether or not researchers can get the projects or not does not depend on the feasibility and the significance of the projects, but on the strength of the relationship between the researchers and the leaders.

There are many reasons for researchers to try to get scientific research projects: they need to carry out projects in order to get promotions or to have opportunities for obtaining professorship.

A researcher who asked to be anonymous, said sometimes university lecturers register scientific research topics and then forget them. They just only begin researching two months before the deadline. In fact, the lecturers do not really want to do research, but they need to do “something” in order to spend the money allocated for their projects.

Associate Professor Bui Van Mien from the HCM City University for Agriculture and Forestry, said: “I do not understand how they can research a cell and a gene if they only have some tens of million dong? “We are even lacking laboratories that serve for teaching, let alone conducting scientific research,” he added.

Source: Nguoi lao dong