Decree No. 08/2014/ND-CP dated January 27, 2014 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Science and Technology

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION MUST HAVE AT LEAST 5 EMPLOYEES WITH UNIVERSITY DEGREE

On January 27, 2014, the Government issued the Decree No. 08/2014/ND-CP on detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Science and Technology, within that, there are many important contents.

In particular, Each science and technology organization must have at least 5 (five) employees who possess a university or higher degree  and work on a full-time or part-time basis, at least 30% of whom possess professional qualifications relevant to the registered major field of activity and at least 40% of whom work on a full-time basis. If established to develop a new field of science and technology, a science and technology organization must have at least 1 (one) employee who possesses a university degree in the registered field of operation and works on a full-time basis. And the head of a science and technology organization must possess a university or higher degree and have managerial experience and relevant professional competence; and dead of science and technology organizations that are higher education institutions must meet the conditions prescribed by the law on higher education.

Besides regulations on human resources in science and technology organization, this Circular also stipulates the distribution of profits when using, or assigning the right to use, transferring or contributing as capital, results of scientific research and technological development funded by the state budget. Remuneration to authors as agreed between the parties, at least 30%; distribution to brokers as agreed between the parties, not exceeding 10%; and after distribution to authors and brokers (if any), the remaining profit shall be distributed as follows: in case of being assigned the right to own: 50% for investment in scientific research and technological development and 50% for the welfare and reward fund of the organization; in case of being assigned the right to use: no more than 10% to be returned to the representative of the state owner as agreed between the parties, and 50% of the remainder for investment in scientific research and technological development and the rest for the welfare and reward fund of the organization

In case an organization or individual uses results of scientific research and technological development for improvement and development of technology for commercialization and registration for protection of intellectual property rights, agreement of the owners of such results must be obtained. The distribution of profits earned from the commercialization prescribed in this Clause must be agreed in writing between the organization or individual concerned and the owner or representative of the state owner of results of scientific research and technological development in conformity with each party’s contribution.