'Increasing income 2-4 times motivates scientists to dare to think and propose'

Circular 49 of the Ministry of Science and Technology, issued on August 1, stipulates a maximum remuneration of 300 million VND per month for the general engineer participating in strategic technology development, 150 million VND for the task leader and 100-120 million VND for the main researcher. Other members can receive remuneration of 45-90 million VND each.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Do Dat, Deputy Director of the Vietnam - Korea Institute of Science and Technology (VKIST), shared with VnExpress about the new mechanism's ability to attract talent and the conditions for the policy to be effective.

- Do you think the new remuneration level for scientists participating in strategic technology development is reasonable or not?

- To evaluate, let's look back at the regulations that have been issued.

According to Circular 03/2023 of the Ministry of Finance, the remuneration for the position of leader of science and technology tasks must not exceed 40 million VND/month. Remuneration for other positions does not exceed 0.8 times this figure.

By 2025, with Circular 39/2025 of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the remuneration ceiling for task leaders will be raised to 70 million VND.

If only counting the position of task leader, the maximum level in the new mechanism is 150 million VND, nearly four times the salary in 2023 and twice the current regulations. It can be said that the number has improved very significantly.

Not only does it improve income, the draft also adds new jobs such as general engineer, newly included in legal documents. For this position alone, the mechanism allows for adjustments to increase beyond the limit in case of necessity, not stopping at the threshold of 300 million VND.

- How will this positive adjustment affect the lives of scientists?

- The press still reflects sad stories when at some research institutes, scientists lose motivation because of insufficient salaries, with an average income of several million dong per month. They have to do other jobs like selling online to cover living expenses. The new financial mechanism is part of policy change efforts to overcome those difficulties.

The group that benefits the most is in public institutes and research centers, which rely mainly on state budget sources. They often have lower income than their colleagues participating in science and technology activities at universities and hospitals. The reason is that Vietnam's science, technology and innovation market is just forming and its scale is modest, so revenue from science and technology activities is still limited compared to the education, training and health care market.

According to calculations by the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (Nafosted), if compared with Singapore and converted by purchasing power parity (PPP), the remuneration of Vietnamese scientists will be close, equal, or even higher. Therefore, the new financial mechanism will definitely improve the income and life of scientists.

I believe the policy will have a strong impact, encouraging scientists to dare to think, dare to propose and undertake large-scale scientific and technological tasks, making practical contributions to national development.

- For Vietnamese scientists abroad, is the above compensation level attractive enough?

- Through discussions with colleagues in France, Germany, and Korea and consulting international experience, I assess the salary of 150 million VND for the position of task leader to be at an average level. Meanwhile, 300 million VND for general engineers is in a high group compared to scientists with professor titles in the state system.

Converting according to purchasing power parity and cost of living in Vietnam also brings certain advantages. Therefore, in terms of financial aspects alone, this contributes to increasing the ability to attract Vietnamese scientists abroad.

But income is not the only factor, because it also depends on the job, research environment and other benefits. When the new mechanism is implemented in sync with other meritocratic policies, I believe the attraction of talent will have positive changes.

- Besides remuneration, what do you think determines a scientist's attachment to an institute, school or research program?

- As mentioned, attracting or retaining scientists depends on many factors such as income, working environment, development opportunities and remuneration policies. This is not just a story for researchers but is also something all workers care about.

In recent years, many scientists have moved from public units to corporations and businesses such as Vingroup, Viettel, FPT or Samsung. Income is one part, but it should be frank that those businesses bring many challenging research problems, derived from practice. From the perspective of a researcher, I realize that what scientists really want is to participate in solving problems, issues, and challenges in science and technology, using their knowledge.

To retain good people, public science and technology organizations need to innovate, create an attractive research environment and have problems large enough for scientists to develop their abilities. At the same time, the state needs to support the development of the science and technology market, through placing large orders for capable organizations.

- When income has improved, what does Vietnam need to do next to create the best conditions for scientists to develop strategic technology?

- Twitter building a financial mechanism is an important fundamental step. In the next step, we need to perfect the management mechanism for strategic technology tasks, towards fair competition, transparency, application of digital technology, respect for intellectual property and protection of the commitment of those who dare to innovate and be creative.

These issues have all been mentioned in the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation. This includes building a research environment according to international standards, reducing the burden of administrative procedures, so that scientists can focus on research instead of chasing paperwork; Invest in and share modern research infrastructure between institutes, schools and businesses; accept risks and facilitate commercialization of research results.

The most important thing right now is to deploy existing mechanisms early, drastically and synchronously, both implementing, evaluating and adjusting to suit reality.

Trong Dat