INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND

Actively scientific exchange is one of the critical factors for the success of scientists from their early education to throughout their career. Within Vietnam, there are limited opportunities for research funding and qualified scientific conferences for young researchers to update with state-of-the-art technologies and advanced discoveries. With the aim to promote active and professional scientific exchanges among biological researchers, Professor Jean Tran Thanh Van (President of the Scientific Association Rencontres du Vietnam – RDV) and Professor Patrick Boiron (Former Rector of the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi – USTH) discussed to form a network of young Vietnamese biologists via the meeting at International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE), Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh, Vietnam under the financial support of RDV, USTH, and ICISE. Following the spirit of this meeting, the first two-day symposium “Research Orientation and Collaboration for Young Biologist” was successfully organized in December 2017, which was aimed for Young Vietnamese Biologists who had obtained Ph.D. degree in France. Thirty participants took part in the meeting and formed the first network of young researchers in life science domain.

With that success, Professor Jean Tran Thanh Van continued to support for the second meeting in December 2019. The two-day meeting - “2nd Vietnam Biology Conference” – was opened for all Vietnamese biologists including researchers, lecturers, students, and also medical doctors. More than 130 young scientists in the life science field from different academic and research institutions around Vietnam actively participated in this event. The network of biological researchers was growing up and named “Life Science Links”.

Aiming to encourage the scientific and educational collaboration among the members of the network and to provide opportunities for young scientists to share their research experiences, Professor Jean Tran Thanh Van has enthusiasticaly proposed to develop this scientific activity to be organized annually. Therefore, in 2020 the third meeting called “The Rencontres de Quy Nhon III: Biology Conference 2020: Meeting – Networking - Collaborations” was sucessfully organized from December 11-13, 2020 at ICISE Conference Center with more than 270 participants. That was almost double the expected number of participants with 150. To maintain and continue this success, the 2019-year MoU between RDV and USTH focusing on research and development of science and education was signed.

Since 2019, the novel coronavirus, also known as SARS-Cov-2, has caused a pandemic with almost 235 M cases, over 4.8 M deaths since 2019, and significant impacts on socio-economics globally. Although biomedical research worldwide and in Vietnam has been seriously impacted in the current pandemic, the “Life Science Links” team, aiming to advance the biological research in Vietnam and continuing the extremely successful annual-scientific meetings mentioned above, organized The Rencontres de Quy Nhon IV: Biology conference 2021 from December 13-15, 2021 at ICISE Conference Center. With 162 participants, the meeting had been shown to be very suscessful in that particular situation.

The series of Biology conferences is part of the annual growing scientific activities of the Rencontres de Quy Nhon. Following the renewed MoU between USTH and RDV, and to celebrate the five-year milestone this scientific event was enlarged and expanded outside Vietnam to become a series of Annual International Conferences on Biology. With this spirit and the success of the previous versions, The 5th Rencontres de Quy Nhon: International Biology Conference 2022 (RdQIBC2022) was successfully organized with an half-day Satellite Pre-conference Plenary Session at USTH, Hanoi and a three-day main conference at ICISE, Quy Nhon, from August 17-19, 2022. This meeting hosted 385 national and International participants from 17 countries with participation of prestigious scientists from US, Canada, France, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, India, etc

Continuing this meaningful scientific event, the Organizing Committee proposed to organize The 6th Rencontres de Quy Nhon: International Biology Conference 2023 (BIO2023 QUY NHON) at ICISE from September 20-22, 2023. The conference’s theme focuses on “From connections to collaborations” in different scientific sectors of life science. The scientific topics will be ordered in three plenary sessions and three concurrent sessions including the new trends and advances in microbiology, plants and one healthcare.

The participants will be expected around 200 including 20% scientists from outside Vietnam, mainly from US, France, and Asian countries like Korea, Singapore, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, etc

CONFERENCE COMPONENTS AND PARTICIPANTS

In the frame of BIO2023 QUY NHON, the main sessions will use a range of formats: Keynote speaker presentations in the plenary sessions, oral presentations of delegates in the parallel sessions, poster exhibitions, and exhibitions of the private companies and enterprises operating in the fields of Microbiology, Plants and healthcare, open roundtable discussions. The excursions will also be offered to raise the opportunity for all participants to visit the beautiful places around Quy Nhon city and further networking and discover the beauty of Quy Nhon.

Meeting duration:

Day 1 (Wed, 20 September 2023): The thematic presentations reflecting the current achievements in science on difference topics, including Microbiology, Plants and Healthcare will be selected and presented by invited keynote speakers and selected registering scientist/presenters.

Day 2 (Thu, 21 September 2023): Continuing with the thematic presentations from delegates to address current achievements of their scientific activities on difference topics of the conference. The thematic open round-table discussions will provide a platform for exchange the practical issues related to the presenting themes and beyond such as the policies and opportunities to develop potential multifaceted collaborations. By the end of the Day 2, an outdoor gala party at the back yard of the ICISE will be organized to celebrate the event.

Day 3 (Fri, 22 September 2023): The poster presentation, thematic exhibitions on essential high-end equipment, cutting-edge scientific tools, and techniques in Biotechnology. Afterward, the Summary and Closing session of the conference will be the final session. The second half of day 3 will be denoted for an excursion around Quy Nhon city and outdoor activities to promote informal scientific communications and networking to bond scientists together.

OBJECTIVES

This sixth meeting will provide a unique platform and opportunity:

• For young researchers from different national and international universities and research institutions to exchange their research achievements, update with current research development in Vietnam and other regions of the world.
• To exchange of experiences and knowledge regarding proposal preparation, research challenges and information on the national and international funding agencies and foudations from invited speakers.
• To promote the scientific collaborations and networking in young generation of scientists
• To discuss the trends and possibilities for biological research in the near future

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

Participants will benefit from:

• Scientific exchanges and professional networking during attending the meeting.
• The supportive laboratory cooperation and teaching skills from other participants of this scientific network, and potentially from the overseas institutions.
• Being updated with research orientation along with research focused suggestions from the senior scientists.
• The detailed information and opportunities from the national and international funding agencies and foundations.
• The establishment of an active biological research society.
• This meeting will also provide organizers an opportunity for better planning for the next conference.

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND COMMITTEES

Organizer and Co-organizer

Organizer: The Scientific Association Rencontres du Vietnam (RDV)

Co-organizers:
- ICISE, Quy Nhon
- University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH), VAST

Chair and Co-Chair

General Chair: Dr. Nguyen Van Phuong (Dept. Life Sciences, USTH, VAST)

Co-Chair 1: Dr. Tran Thanh Son (Quy Nhon University, ICISE)

Co-Chair 2: Dr. Phan Quang Tien (National University of Singapore)

CONTACT PERSON

Dr. Tran Thanh Son, Email : tranthanhson227@gmail.com

Dr. Nguyen Van Phuong, Email : nguyen-van.phuong@usth.edu.vn

- In Science, We Share! -