Why has no scientist won the Ta Quang Buu Prize 2021?

Since 2013, the Ta Quang Buu Prize has been awarded to Vietnamese scientists with outstanding works on the occasion of Vietnam Science and Technology Day 18/5. However, this year, no one received this award.
According to information from the National Fund for Science and Technology Development (Fund), the organizers of the 2021 Ta Quang Buu Prize have received 41 applications from Science and Technology organizations and scientists. all over the country. The applications received were distributed in all 8 disciplines in the field of natural sciences and engineering, in which Physics and Agricultural Sciences had the most applications (9 applications/industry).

The 2021 Award evaluation process is carried out according to regulations, including checking application conditions; consult experts to review; evaluated at the Foundation’s Scientific Council (OSC) and the Award Council. On April 29, 2021, the Prize Council for 2021 met to evaluate and select applications. However, after more than 4 hours of discussion and voting, the Award Council decided not to recommend awarding the nominations. On May 13, 2021, the Minister of Science and Technology approved this proposal. Too few good records? Professor Ngo Viet Trung, Chairman of the Award Council, said that this year, although the number of applications for evaluation and selection was similar to previous years, after the initial review, there were only 2 scientific activities in Earth Science and Science. Environmental and Agricultural Biology nominate 2 entries for the Main Prize and 2 for the Junior Award for consideration at the Awards Panel. This year’s nominations are all in the experimental field, related to issues of concern to scientists around the world. It is the work of Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngo Duc Thanh, Dr. Bui Minh Tuan on climate change in rain, and the work on the use of antibiotic substitutes in aquaculture by Dr. Do Huu Hoang, a project on the technical system of growing chrysanthemums on a large scale by Dr. Hoang Thanh Tung. Will young scientists have more opportunities at the Ta Quang Buu Prize? Prof. Nguyen Huu Duc, Chairman of the Physics Council, said that although this year the Science Council also received a number of applications, including works published in journals with IF coefficients, but did not nominate any works. to the Awards Committee. Explaining this, Prof. Duc said the reason is that most of these works have only been published about half a year ago, while the Physics Council thinks that it is necessary to evaluate the works at an international level, through by number of citations. “So the Physics committee members agreed to give it another year to have a more accurate assessment of the publication quality with these works.” In the Science Council in Mathematics, there are also two nominations that, according to Prof. Ngo Viet Trung, are of sufficient quality. However, at the time of voting, both of these applications did not receive 2/3 of the votes to be nominated to the Award Council. This may have caused a negative resonance if people did not understand the situation of this year “- Professor Trung shared. “However, I confirm that no works have been awarded the award that does not fully reflect the development reality of the country’s science and technology.” According to Professor Ngo Viet Trung, looking at the quality of international publication of basic science today, the number of articles in leading journals has increased markedly and the quality is much better than the time when there was a Ta Quang Buu Award. “However, each year the quantity and quality of applications for awarding the Prize depends on many other factors such as the self-nomination of scientists or the nomination of research and training organizations. create. Scientists are afraid to nominate themselves for the prize, while many agencies are not interested in nominating outstanding works. In addition, awarding a prize to an individual or to a work also limits nominations because scientific achievements are often confirmed through a cluster of works and through the cooperation of many scientists. Professor Ngo Viet Trung also said that it is important that the quality of the award is guaranteed. “It’s normal for an award not to be given by anyone. The Board of Directors has worked very seriously, not for the sake of having a prize but trying to award it, which will affect the prestige of the award. For example, China’s highest national award for science and technology (worth about $750,000) has gone without a prize twice, Mr. Trung cited. In particular, in 2015, there was no award, but China had a Nobel Prize in Medicine right before the national award. Young scientists need to be taken care of The 2021 season has passed, but according to Prof. Ngo Viet Trung, there are contents that the Foundation needs to discuss to draw lessons for the following years, so that the award can achieve the purpose of promoting research in basic science and technology. encourage young researchers. He also expressed the view that “need to pay more attention to young scientists”. “I and other members are trying to propose to the Ministry of Science and Technology so that each industry has a young award and the young award recipient will be a typical scientist for his or her specialty.” Prof. Nguyen Huu Duc also expressed his support that next year the regulations should change a bit, such as increasing the number of young prizes, and some more detailed award criteria. “Currently, the criteria of the award are heavy on hard indexes such as the influence of magazines, and the ability to deeply analyze the value of each work still has some shortcomings. Therefore, in my opinion, it is necessary to balance the hard criteria with the specific value and unique points of the work, plus expert opinion, public opinion because there are works published in ordinary journals but very difficult. excellent”. Ta Quang Buu Prize is an annual award of the Ministry of Science and Technology to encourage and honor scientists who play a key role in excellent scientific works, carried out in Vietnam, and published on the Internet. prestigious international scientific journals in the field of natural sciences and engineering. The award has been implemented since 2013, in the past 7 years, it has received more than 360 applications, awarded 16 main prizes and 4 awards for young scientists.