A group of Vietnamese scientists have bagged JPY3 million ($26,300) for winning the top prize of Asia Innovation Award, funded by Japan's conglomerate Hitachi.

The Hitachi Global Foundation under the auspices of the Japanese corporate that provides funding for science and technology had given the top prize of its 2021 Asia Innovation Award to a collaborative project on biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) led by Dr. Pham Thi Thuy Phuong from Vietnam’s Institute of Chemical Technology, the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology announced on Wednesday. 

The Vietnamese group scored the Best Innovation Award, which gives each winner JPY3 million.

BOD is a measure of the amount of oxygen consumed by bacteria while they decompose waste organic matter in water.

It can be used as an index of the degree of organic pollution in water.

In their award-winning work, Dr. Phuong and her partners seek to develop biosensors for online assessments of BOD, which can help identify the toxicity of water samples in a timely and accurate manner.  

Requiring low investments and operation costs, the biosensor solution is expected to make its way into realistic scenarios that call for automatic and real-time environment tracking,

In those cases, they will provide early alerts for environmental catastrophes, protecting lives on land and under water. 

The Hitachi Global Foundation, founded in 2015 in a merger of five corporate social responsibility branches of Hitachi, seeks to provide social programs in home upbringing, youth development, promotion of science and technology, awareness-raising of environmental conservation, and support for human development in Asia, according to the Japanese company's website.

The foundation started the annual Asia Innovation Award in 2020 to promote science, technology, and innovation that help solve social issues and realizing a sustainable society in the ASEAN region.

It seeks to highlight outstanding achievements in research and development in the fields of science and technology, which contribute to an ideal future society and achievements of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In 2020, 18 universities and research institutes in six ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, were invited to submit R&D results that contribute to the following targets of SDGs Goal 2 ‘End Hunger’ and Goal 3 ‘Good Health and Well-Being.'

Out of the group, a total of 12 recipients were selected and rewarded, including two Best Innovation Award winners.

As one of the winners, Dr. Nguyen Minh Tan from the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) and her research group were honored for their work on processing agricultural and fishery products. 

The full result for the 2021 competition will be announced in January 2022.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!