Relevant agencies and universities across Da Nang have been carrying out many activities to support and create conditions to promote scientific research and startup movements among students, thereby creating many projects to meet the growing market demand.

The BINKS Group has received great support from the VN-UK Institute for Research and Executive Education to develop its startup project. Photo: TRAN TRUC

Universities are increasingly playing an important role as ‘incubators’ for scientific research projects and startup ideas. For example, the project ‘BINKS - Vegetable ink colour - A new direction for green agriculture’ by a group of students from the VN-UK Institute for Research and Executive Education, a member school of the University of Da Nang -UD) won first prize in the ‘Students with startup ideas VI – 2024’ contest held in May 2024.

BINKS group leader, student Tran Nhan Kiet said: “Our group has received comprehensive support from the school’s governors since the early days of forming the idea. The guidance of associate professors and PhDs has played an important role in orienting research and product development for BINKS. Not only stopping at technical support, the school also organised workshops introducing business perspectives to students. We have actively participated in these activities and gained many valuable lessons about entrepreneurship as well as business development. In addition, the school’s connection with the business community has opened up many opportunities to help us not only learn valuable experiences but also help BINKS build a network of relationships in the industry”.

Established in October 2006, the Economic Startup Club under the Students’ Association of the University of Economics, a member school of the UD, has maintained vibrant activities for nearly 18 years. Up to now, the club has gained a certain position in the Da Nang student community as well as effectively cooperated with many businesses.

The club has nearly 100 active members, part of the startup ecosystem of Da Nang, and the whole country in general. The club has organised many competitions such as ‘Business Arena 2024 - Unwrap your power’, ‘I Choose You - Hold your chance to change’ recruitment connection programme.

According to Mr. Huynh Quoc Hung, the Head of the Economic Startup Club, its development orientation of is to form the ability of its members to think about leadership and startups, of which skills and experience are taken as the centre through experiences in the working environment, knowledge in the classroom and experience exchanges through the club, thereby creating opportunities for members to experience the real business environment, while creating conditions for implementing startup projects and developing themselves.

In order to have a practical playground to develop startup projects, many competitions have been organised and become an ‘incubator’ of ideas for young people to unleash their creativity and demonstrate their abilities.

At the end of July 2024, the final round of the UniHack 2024 competition organised by the Google Developer Student Club community under the University of Science and Technology, a member school of UD and Google Developer Group Cloud Da Nang took place. The competition for students passionate about technology and programming in Viet Nam’s central region attracted more than 30 teams with a total of 120 registered candidates.

At the same time, the final round of the Beehive Startup Challenge 2024 student startup competition, organised by the FPT Polytechnic College Da Nang in coordination with Lien Chieu District Youth Union, took place at the end of July. The competition aimed at developing innovative startup ideas, enhancing the application of science and technology and diversifying fields such as biotechnology, craft village development, communications, healthcare, production with a focus on positive impacts on society.

In recent times, the Da Nang Youth Union has synchronously implemented practical activities with the goal of promoting the ‘Creative Youth’ movement; promoting and supporting creative and startup activities among Youth Union members, creating opportunities for ideas to be expressed and brought to fruition.

Specifically, the Da Nang Youth Union organised the Innovative Startup Festival; the Innovative Startup Ideas Competition/Light up Your Creativity; the ‘Startup Project for Rural Youth’ competition at the city level. In addition, this agency also coordinated with the municipal Department of Science and Technology to organise the annual Student Scientific Research Competition.

According to Mr. Le Cong Hung, Deputy Secretary of the Da Nang Youth Union, through the competitions, the quality of startup ideas and projects among university students and Youth Union members across the city as a whole, has been increasingly enhanced and has been highly evaluated by businesses. With the participation of a large number of Youth Union members in the city, the competitions have encouraged and promoted the spirit of entrepreneurship, career establishment, and participation in economic development of young people.

Reporting by TRAN TRUC - Translating by A.THU, V.DUNG