Answers to interdisciplinary challenges

Artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation, green transformation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are reshaping socio-economic systems. Economic, environmental and governance challenges are increasingly intertwined. Science therefore needs to move beyond single-discipline approaches towards interdisciplinary research that tackles real-world problems.

In Vietnam, the twin transition has become a key national priority. It is set out in Politburo Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW, the National Green Growth Strategy and the country’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050. Yet domestic research is still largely organised along single disciplines. The Sustainable Transformation Research Group was founded to fill this gap. It brings together governance, economics, data science, AI, energy and public policy.

A multidisciplinary team with a strong publication record

The group has 14 members. Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Phuong Mai serves as deputy head and Assoc.Prof.Dr. Le Thi Mai as Secretary. Members bring complementary expertise ranging from management, economics and policy to AI, automation and control engineering. Two collaborators from India also work with the group: Prof.Dr. Mohit Yadav of Jindal Global Business School and Assoc.Prof.Dr. Shikha Daga of the University of Delhi.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Luu Thi Minh Ngoc is Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management at VNU-IS. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the VNU Journal of Science: Policy and Management Studies. She has published 111 scientific papers, including 36 in ISI/Scopus-indexed journals, as well as 24 chapters in international books. She has served as lead editor of six textbooks and three monographs. She has also supervised three PhD graduates and more than 52 master’s graduates.

Collectively, the group has published more than 260 WoS/Scopus articles, an average of about two per member per year, together with 87 monographs and book chapters. Their work has appeared in journals such as IEEE Access, Energy, Journal of Environmental Management and Discover Sustainability, and in books from publishers including Springer, Palgrave Macmillan and Emerald.

Between 2023 and 2025, members led a wide range of projects funded by NAFOSTED, by ministries and by VNU, as well as international projects. A notable example is a project on youth and socio-ecological transformation funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Germany), with a budget of over VND 3.2 billion. In training, the group has supervised seven PhD graduates and 52 master’s graduates. It currently supervises more than 15 doctoral candidates and 40 master’s students, and has held a monthly research seminar since April 2024.

Two core research programmes

The group’s research model has three components: drivers of transformation, the transformation process, and transformation outcomes. Building on this model, the group runs two research programmes. The first, “Intelligent Technologies for Sustainable Transformation”, focuses on AI, digital transformation, smart manufacturing, clean energy and technology transfer. The second, “Governance, Policy and Innovation for Sustainable Transformation”, examines corporate governance, human resources and leadership, organisational behaviour, development policy and entrepreneurship. In its methods, the group combines quantitative and qualitative research with tools such as big data analytics, machine learning, system dynamics simulation and the Delphi method.

For 2027–2031, the group aims to publish 140 WoS/Scopus articles and 35 books and book chapters. It also plans to train 70 master’s graduates and 14 PhD candidates, and to carry out 30 science and technology projects, four of them at the national level. Expected outputs include AI models for management, a sustainable transformation index and policy advisory reports.