To achieve the above goal, consulting on determining (selecting) the list of ordered scientific and technological tasks is a particularly important step. Often, the proposals of individuals and units are very large, many times more than the requirements, the quality and urgency are also different. Research results are one of the conditions for considering emulation and reward titles in the political system. Choosing the right research list will greatly determine the investment efficiency, on the contrary, low efficiency, waste, can even have a negative impact on academic integrity and the advancement of many people.
Regarding science and technology research tasks, the national level, ministerial level, National Science and Technology Fund level (Nafosted), and grassroots level (institute or research center, university) have all changed and are more secure than provincial science and technology tasks. At the national level, investment in science and technology for many decades has been mainly from the state budget, but from 2020 up to now, there has been a strong change, along with a growth rate of over 10%/year, currently the structure of budget capital and social capital (private) is 50/50. But provincial science and technology research is still basically budget capital. The average budget investment capital/1 science and technology task at all levels has improved significantly, the national science and technology task is over 4 billion VND, the ministerial level is over 1.5 billion and the provincial level is over 1 billion VND. Domestic and international scientific publications, inventions, and technical advances in both the public and private sectors all have an upward trend. In particular, domestic and international scientific publications, inventions, and technical advances in the public sector all come from national, ministerial, Nafosted fund, and grassroots science and technology tasks. At the provincial level, there are very few domestic publications, almost no international publications, inventions, or technical advances...
(1) Any science and technology task at any level (national, ministerial, provincial, and grassroots) requires ensuring novelty and creativity. Usually, novelty and creativity are defined qualitatively, making it difficult to identify and control. But there is one point that can be identified and controlled, which is that new research tasks must not overlap with tasks that have been or are being researched. The problem is that the scope of considering duplication is not clear. For initiatives (a lower level of research than science and technology tasks), novelty and creativity are also required at the level of similar ideas of others that have not been revealed in books and newspapers so that they can be imitated (if there is duplicate content, it must be improved differently). That is, the scope is very wide, not limited to an administrative area. The scope of considering duplication of technical solutions to recognize inventions or useful solutions is even wider, both nationally and internationally. The scope for considering duplication for national and ministerial-level science and technology tasks is nationwide. For science and technology tasks funded by the national science and technology fund, the scope for considering duplication is nationwide and internationally. For grassroots science and technology tasks for many units, especially universities, duplication is also considered nationwide and internationally. Only then will there be enough conditions for scientific publication domestically and internationally. For provincial-level topics, the general regulation has long been "no duplication with tasks that have been or are being implemented" without specifying the administrative scope. But recently, Circular 09/2024/TT-BKHCN dated December 27, 2024 of the Ministry of Science and Technology , regulating the management of provincial and grassroots science and technology tasks using the state budget, has had some easier changes. For basic-level science and technology tasks, the Circular does not specifically stipulate the scope of consideration of overlap, but the main goal of science and technology research of universities and research institutes is to publish scientific research domestically and internationally, so their internal regulations are still not to overlap with issues that have been researched domestically and internationally. As for provincial-level science and technology tasks, the regulations are more specific, but the scope is narrowed down to "not overlap tasks that have been and are being carried out in the province". The provinces have abolished current documents to implement Circular 09. So, is it acceptable to overlap provincial-level science and technology tasks nationwide, that is, tasks that have been and are being carried out in provinces, ministries, branches and basic-level topics (Research Institutes, universities) can continue to be carried out in any province? Usually, it is difficult for science and technology tasks that have been or are being carried out at the provincial level to "climb up" to higher-level tasks or to the Institute or University level, but there are higher-level topics or Institute or University level topics that can "transform" down to the provincial level, and this provincial or city level topic can also "transform" into another province's topic. For a long time, it has been very difficult to control duplication, and now with this mechanism, the risk of duplication will increase. At the provincial level, there is also a risk of science and technology research overlapping with research of professional consulting organizations or regular functions and tasks of specialized, advisory and support agencies.
(2) Review in consulting on determining (selection) of science and technology tasks. For many years now, according to regulations, the Advisory Council for determining science and technology tasks at all levels has been established by field, each council has 2 members with in-depth expertise in the council as review experts for each order proposal. But in reality, science and technology tasks at the national, ministerial, national science and technology fund-funded and grassroots levels (universities, research institutes) are established specialized or inter-disciplinary advisory councils that are related to each other. And for each order proposal, the council assigns 02 members as review members. But for provincial science and technology tasks, it is different. Provinces often do not establish advisory councils by field, but establish them according to 4 blocks: Block of natural sciences (usually very rarely); block of agriculture and forestry, including livestock, aquaculture, biotechnology...; industrial sectors (including construction, transportation, environmental resources, information technology; social and humanities sectors, including: medicine, education and training, politics, law, economics, party building.... (these are 3 common and regular sectors).
The advisory council is organized by blocks consisting of many sectors, resulting in a very large number of consulting documents (15-30 documents/01 council, more or less depending on each province). While the working time of the council is usually only 01 session, leading to the council only having time to discuss and vote to select the tasks that need to be performed, not having time to complete the name, urgency, objectives, research content, and S&T products that need to be achieved in terms of quantity and quality. The council often delegates those issues to the Department of Science and Technology to complete, and the Department of Science and Technology needs the coordination of the original proposer and orderer. On the other hand, even more inappropriate is that the decision to establish a provincial advisory council by block or sector specifically lists 02 reviewers, without allowing the council to base on the specialized structure of the members to assign reviewers to one or several related tasks such as for S&T tasks at the national, ministerial, Nafosted Fund, or grassroots levels. This leads to 2 reviewers sometimes reviewing 15-30 files, and the expertise of one industry "judges" a series of other industries. This is beyond the expertise of the reviewers, and the voting results are inevitably influenced by emotional factors.
(3) Identifying scientific and technological products in the ordering task. When identifying scientific and technological tasks at the national, ministerial, national science and technology fund, and grassroots levels, in addition to scientific reports, the required products must be scientific publications (published in domestic specialized journals in the list of journals scoring for conferring the title of Professor, Associate Professor or in prestigious international journals), or have the prospect of registering for patents, utility solutions, certified or have the prospect of being certified for technical progress (national or ministerial level). However, for provincial-level scientific and technological research, the main and popular ones are scientific reports and technological processes, and there is no mandatory requirement to have scientific publications or technological processes with the prospect of being recognized for technical progress or registering for patents or utility solutions). Therefore, every year, provincial-level science and technology tasks account for about 30% of the total tasks and 25% of research funding at all levels, but very few are published, very few are registered, and almost no patents, utility solutions, or technical advances are granted.
To overcome the above shortcomings, determining provincial-level science and technology tasks needs to pay attention to several issues:
Firstly, to ensure the novelty and creativity of urgent science and technology tasks, the lack of duplication needs to be considered nationwide, not just within the province; duplication needs to be considered not only between science and technology tasks at all levels, but also with the tasks of professional consulting organizations and the regular tasks of advisory bodies of Party committees and authorities.
Second, change from establishing an advisory council to select a list of science and technology tasks by block including many sectors to establishing a specialized council or a number of sectors with professional relationships with each other. Change from 02 reviewers to review many science and technology task files to each or a number of tasks with professional relationships with each other having 02 reviewers. This should not be a rigid regulation but should be assigned specifically by each council. To ensure the working time of the council, it is necessary to change from proposing science and technology tasks and determining (selecting the list) from 01 period to 02-03 periods per year.
Third, when determining the list of provincial-level ordered science and technology tasks, provincial-level science and technology task products, along with scientific reporting products and technological processes, it is necessary to clearly determine the level of scientific publication, prospects for patent registration, technical progress or conversion into provincial policies, mechanisms and guidelines.
Fourth, specialized software for screening duplication and plagiarism has been applied in many places for national, ministerial, Nafosted fund, and grassroots science and technology tasks and is expanding. Many political competitions at the central level have also been applied. At the provincial level, it is also necessary to soon apply specialized software to screen for duplication of science and technology tasks and to screen for plagiarism in research task summary reports. Strictly implement the regime of sending dossiers and results of science and technology tasks at all levels to the database of the National Science and Technology Information Center for regular reference.
Finally, on June 27, 2025, the National Assembly issued Law No. 93/2025/QH15 on Science, Technology and Innovation; many issues were also specifically researched and guided by Decrees and Circulars. Provincial levels can proactively review, adjust or proactively propose to the Ministry of Science and Technology to review, adjust and provide unified guidance./.
Phan Duc Ngu
Source: https://sonla.dcs.vn/tin-tuc-su-kien/noi-dung/nhung-bat-cap-trong-xac-dinh-nhiem-vu-khoa-hoc-cong-nghe-cap-tinh-5605.html
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