Vietnam, France reach deal on lab establishment

Vietnam and France on September 16 agreed to cooperate in establishing an international alliance laboratory – a France-Vietnam Particle Physics Laboratory.

The agreement was the outcome of a working visit to France by a delegation of the Ministry of Science and Technology led by Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tien.

It was also the follow-up of the agreement of cooperation signed by the Vietnamese and French governments on November 12, 2009 aimed at developing and using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

The Vietnamese head delegate said the agreement would make an important contribution to building Vietnam’s applied nuclear physics and particle accelerator capacity.

The cooperation would focus on graduate, master degree and doctorate training for young Vietnamese physicists, in both France and Vietnam, and help Vietnamese researchers being trained in France to work in related areas, Tien said.

The agreement will also provide opportunities for Vietnamese partners to participate in research and training programmes in a network of international labs jointly founded by the Vietnam National Centre for Scientific Research, the French National Centre for Nuclear and Particle Physics Research (IN2P3), the French Committee of Atomic Energy and research institutes of several countries.