About us

International Network of Excellence and Hi-Tech Hub in Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0

The UK-Vietnam Collaborations and Hi-tech Hub in Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0

To develop an International Network of Excellence and Hi-Tech Hub for Vietnam’s Industry 4.0 via the UK-VN collaborations in Smart Manufacturing.

This project is designed to be well-aligned with strategies of Vietnam’s Industry 4.0, aims to develop an international Network of Excellence and Hi-Tech Hub in Vietnam via the UK-VN collaborations in Smart Manufacturing with Collaborative Robots, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Sustainable Design, taking advantages of Vietnam’s potentials and the well-established innovation resources in the UK, to support R&D capacity building of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Vietnam, and to stimulate longer-term links between the UK and Vietnam.

Our missions

This project is well-aligned with the national strategies for VN's Industry 4.0, aimed to strategically contribute to the economic development and social welfare of Vietnam via (1) Improving the life-quality and safety of working environments with smart manufacturing (SM) solutions, creating positive impacts on the lives of low-income populations who are currently most working in the low-cost manufacturing systems with poor-quality working environments; (2) enhancement of quality of human resources in R&D, Sustainability, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; (3) translating research and innovation into economic and societal benefit with innovative and cost-effective development of products and services; and (3) applying green technologies and sustainability in Design and Manufacturing. Finally, the impacts of SM and Industry 4.0 to economic development and social welfare are well recognized, via the direct contributions to the economic growths and efficient use of energy and natural resources.

Our value

The project aims to establish the 1st international NoE and Hi-Tech Hub in SM, towards VN's industry 4.0, with 50+ multi-disciplinary partners from universities, businesses, investors, and funding organizations. The long term expected outcomes & impacts include: (1) To co-organize international workshops, conferences, training courses, and KTP activities in Industry 4.0 & SM; (2) The NoE and Hi-Tech Hub will act as the think- tank for VN about SM; (3) To co-develop Industry 4.0 & SM-oriented case studies in VN; and (4) Sustainable developments with specific capacity building programs in both R&D and human resources.

Our strategy

The methods include: (1) to co-organize R&D networking & collaboration events with active R&D participants from the UK and Vietnam, especially early career researchers (ECRs); and (2) to create fruitful transnational R&D and Higher Education, with effective University-Industry links, Hi-tech Start-ups, and active multi-disciplinary R&D groups within the institutions.

The UK lead institution and associate partners have strong track-records and expertise in SM & Industry 4.0 (Innovative Design & Manufacturing, Al. loT, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Collaborative Design, Collaborative Robots, 3D Printing), as shown in the projects funded by TSB/EPSRC and EC (H2020-FoF) programs: AUTOMAN (£1.9M) and CoRoT (€3,9M). Recently (2019), the UK lead institution established a new robotics lab, funded by the UK Research Capital Investment funds. These expertises and experiences directly add value to all proposed collaborative activities of this project. Meanwhile, the country partner in Vietnam has recently received the grant of £200K funded by Vingroup Innovation Foundation entitled “Big data analytics-based optimization of process parameters for a smart manufacturing shop floor consisting of CNC machines and Robots”. Therefore, the UK and VN partners share a very close common interest and R&D activities in SM & Industry 4.0. They will directly support each other to enhance the quality of research outputs, and research environment links and to promote capacity building collaborations.