The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the International Development Association (IDA) - World Bank (WB) signed the Financing Agreement on the date of July 25, 2013 for the implementation of the "Fostering Innovation through Research, Science and Technology" project (FIRST project).
The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has been authorized by the Government of Vietnam to be the project owner. FIRST project has the following main objectives:
(i) designing and piloting new policies to improve the national policy framework for S&T;
(ii) capacity building for Government Research Institutes (GRIs) towards further linkages with enterprises and market demands;
(iii) promoting innovation in enterprises, and encouraging the development of S&T enterprises.
It is intended that in the first round (through December 31, 2014) FIRST project will allocate an amount of USD 1.0 million (or revised amount if required) for award of grants to the competitively selected applications.