In the morning of December 4, 2018, at the Conference Hall B, Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), the international conference on avian influenza under the project entitled “A study of latitudinal viral gene migration and reassortment of potentially zoonotic avian influenza viruses along wild bird East Asian - Australasian Flyway in Pacific Rim” was held.

This is a big project with the participation of different strong research groups on avian influenza from many countries. The project has been implementing from January 1, 2018 to December 2020 and funded by Japan Agency for Medicinal Research and Development (AMED), Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam. Vietnam National University of Agriculture is a member of the project.

Attending the conference were Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, President of Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Dr. Naoko Kojima, Deputy Manager of Department of International Affairs, Dr. Masatoshi Okamatsu, Lead PI, Hokkaido University (HU), Dr. Falk Huettmann, Institute of Arctic Biology, Biology and Wildlife Department (USA), Prof. Alexandr Shestopalov, Director of the Research Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine (Russia), and representatives from Vietnam Department of Animal Health, leaders and lecturers from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, VNUA.

During the conference, researchers presented surveillance results of current influenza virus strains in their countries. The representative of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, VNUA delivered a presentation on research capacity of research groups of the faculty, capacities of the key laboratory of Biotechnology Veterinary in the surveillance and research on avian influenza viruses in Vietnam, and proposed collaboration ideas in the surveillance of avian influenza for research and training.

In addition, at the conference, the representative of AMED, Hokkaido University and Research Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine (Russia) introduced scholarship programs for PhD students and short-term student exchange programs in Japan and Russia.

The workshop ended successfully opening up opportunities for comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam National University of Agriculture and other universities and research institutes, especially in the field of scientific research on avian influenza, and in graduate training.