On November 3, 2018, University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH, Vietnam France University) signed the agreement with French Institute of Research for Development (IRD), National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), Institute of Marine Environment and Resources (IMER) and Institute of Space Technology (IST) for establishing the International Joint Laboratory “Study Center of the Land-Ocean-aTmosphere regional coUpled System” (LMI-LOTUS).
The event was a part of a serie of activities of the French Delegation, including representatives of many prestigious French educational and research institutions visiting the campus and signing the agreements which play important roles in the training and research development strategies of USTH.
The ceremony was attended by Mr. Eric Molay, Attaché of Science and University Cooperation of French Embassy in Vietnam; Mr. Jean-Paul Moatti, President and Director general of IRD; Mr. Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of CNES, Assoc. Prof. Tran Dinh Lan, Director of IMER; Dr. Pham Minh Tuan, Vice Director of STI; Assoc. Prof. Dinh Thi Mai Thanh, Acting Rector of USTH, Prof. Marine Herrmann, Director of Water – Environment – Oceanography Department, Director of LMI-LOTUS and Assoc. Prof. Ngo Duc Thanh, Co-Director of Space and Aeronautics Department, Co-Director of LMI-LOTUS.
LMI-LOTUS was initiated in 2018 with the goal to build a state-of-the art laboratory for environmental studies gathering scientists from different fields and teams, in strong connection with education programs of international standards. It aims to develop an innovative integrated approach to study the transport and fate of water and matter in the river-estuary-ocean continuum focusing on North Vietnam. These data are really crucial to Vietnam because this is a coastal country where key agriculture, fishing and tourism industries strongly rely on water resources and quality.
LMI-LOTUS has received funding as well as professional participation of many universities, research institutes and organizations in Vietnam and France in the fields of Environment, Oceanography, Remote Sensing and Earth Observation.
Of these, IRD and CNES are two of the eight sponsors and founders of the project alongside the Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, the University of Littoral Côte-d’Opale of France, the University of Toulouse III- Paul Sabatier (USP), Lille University of Science and Technology 1, French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST). In addition, IMER and STI will support the project with many important contents. Specifically, IMRE contributes to information collection in coastal areas and analyzes data on regional oceanography while STI provides technology to collect data when watching the earth from satellites.
The agreement signed between USTH with IRD, CNES, IMER and STI, which are the important partners of the project will create favorable conditions for the establishment and development of LMI-LOTUS in the upcoming time.
With the advent of LMI-LOTUS, there will be 5 international joint labs which have been established at USTH, including the International Joint Lab Drug Resistance in South East Asia (LMI-DRISA); the International Joint Lab Functional Genomics and Biotechnology for Plants and associated Microorganisms (LMI-RICE); Information, Communication and Technology Laboratory (ICTLab) and Clean Energy Laboratory and Sustainable Development (CleanED). These are 5 international research units that gather outstanding scientists from universities and research organizations in Vietnam, France and other countries. The research projects have been conducted to address current global warming issues such as climate change, clean energy development, or sustainable agriculture.
