LASER PULSE team visits Vietnam Projects Partners

On July 2, 2024, Suzi Cyr, Program Director, and Betty Bugusu, Technical Director visited with representatives from three of the five LASER PULSE projects in Vietnam. The meeting took place at the Plant Resource Center (PRC), hosted by Dr. Vu Dang Toan, a plant breeder at PRC and the Principal Investigator (PI) of the Conservation and Introduction of Naturally Salt-Tolerant Crops in Coastal Provinces project. PRC is the national coordinator of Vietnam’s plant genetic resources conservation for food and agriculture use. The Center has various divisions, including Genebank Management and Data Information, Seed Multiplication and Evaluation, and In Situ and Germplasm Exploration and Agro-biodiversity. The PRC has strong links with universities and plant breeding institutes in Vietnam and abroad, providing access to materials held in the genebank and consultancy services on request.

During the visit, PRC provided a tour of the Genebank Management and Data Information facility, which features storage and cold rooms and an in vitro Genebank. The group also visited the field genebank and the on-farm conservation plots. The PRC genebank division leads the germplasm collection for tropical and conservation of subtropical regions of Vietnam. They have 24 members across the country from North to South. Currently, the genebank houses over 38,000 accessions of more than 490 species. Dr. Vu Dang Toan mentioned a successful outcome of his LASER project: HALOFAI, a company in Southern Vietnam, is currently producing halophyte-based supplements, specifically polyphenols and Vitamin C supplements. Moreover, the Halophyte species continue to develop in coastal provinces, especially aquaculture areas.

Dr. Hoang’s project, titled “Decentralized Water Resource Circulation as a Sustainable Solution for Plantations” developed a proof of concept for water recycling. Initiatives at the research park and Vieba Fabric, partners on the project, are ongoing. The team’s efforts contributed to the public discourse on water resources law, leading to the inclusion of a clause on water recycling. This law was signed in November 2023 and became effective on July 1, 2024. Since the signing of the law, water recycling has become widespread in Vietnam. Furthermore, the team has published two peer-reviewed journal articles since the project concluded in July 2023. A team member was recently offered a National Expert post in water reuse in Vietnam for the Global Eco-Industrial Park Programme (GEIPP) of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The team continues research on wastewater reuse in some other local projects.

Dr. Nguyen’s project aimed at improving air pollution monitoring and management with satellite observation. The project worked to expand PM2.5 monitoring nationwide and to create products to communicate PM2.5 concentration status to communities across the country in different ways, including PM2.5 datasets, annual PM2.5 pollution reports, a WebGIS for daily PM2.5 visualization, and educational videos. The team created a Pollution Observation Platform Geographic Information System – POPGIS, an application service for air pollution monitoring and management in Vietnam on the Web, available at https://popgis.vnu.edu.vn. After the project was concluded IN 2023, the team focused on promoting and sharing research translation products with end-users the team continued to engage in dissemination activities, including at research conferences and public presentations. They have received requests for data from various researchers, NGOs, and the World Health Organization (WHO). A big outcome of these engagements is a potential partnership on a project with NASA and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Note: Two LASER PULSE research projects were not represented at the meeting, mainly because they were conducted in Ho Chi Minh City. They include the “Do Better Managers Engage in Less Corruption?”, led by Professor Edmund Malesky, Director & Professor of Political Economy, Duke Center for International Development (DCID) at Duke University, and “Avoid the TRAP”, led by Pro. Pham Le An, Director of the Grant and Innovation Centre, Director of the Family Medicine Training Centre, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City