On the morning of November 28, 2022, within the framework of the project "The women's empowerment-sustainable tourism nexus in rural Vietnam" held at VNU from November 28 to December 3, 2022, a team of experts from KU Leuven University, Belgium had a visit and worked with representatives of VNU-HUS.
The KU Leuven University team included Prof. Anton Van Rompaey, Prof. Costanza Parra and experts in the fields of geography, ecology, sustainability, tourism and gender.
The team was welcomed by Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Tung, Director of the Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences; Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngac An Bang, VNU-HUS vice rector, heads of their functional departments, experts and researchers in the fields related to the project.
In his welcome speech, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngac An Bang, vice rector, sent his warm greetings to the the KU Leuven University team and hoped that the cooperation project will achieve much success in the near future.
After this warm greeting, Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Tung, Director of VNU’s Institute of Science and Technology, said that he was pleased that the three units were able to resume the cooperation in research that had been interrupted by the Covid-19 epidemic. He affirmed that VNU's member units were ready to participate in this project with KU Leuven University.
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngac An Bang, Vice Rector of VNU-HUS, was presenting a gift to Prof. Anton Van Rompaey, representative of KU Leuven University.
At the meeting, professors and experts from KU Leuven University detailed the content and plan for cooperation in the research project "The women's empowerment-sustainable tourism nexus in rural Vietnam", the Interdisciplinary Internship Program (Living Lab) of the Master's Program in Sustainable Development and the CELESTE Network on society, ecology, space and sustainable development… and after a thorough discussion with experts from VNU-HUS and the Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences, specific cooperation contents were agreed on.
GS. Anton Van Rompaey, Program Leader, was presenting the Master's Program in Sustainable Development of KU Leuven University.
GS. Constanza Parra was presenting the communicating options of the ICP project.
Dr. Klara Claessens, Program Coordinator, was presenting the Living Lab interdisciplinary internship.
Dr. Bruno Verbist was sharing his experience of organizing Living Lab.
Dr. Eirini Skrimizea was presenting the plan for implementing the project "The women's empowerment-sustainable tourism nexus in rural Vietnam".
The three units will continue to work in order to reach an agreement on the plan to organize an interdisciplinary internship program (Living Lab) in Vietnam and build the CELESTR network in the next 5 years.
During this working visit to Vietnam, the KU Leuven University team will also visit the Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences as well as the Faculty of Environment, the Faculty of Geography, and the Faculty of Biology), followed by a field trip of all three units in Hoa Binh province from November 30 to December 3, 2022.