Good research is rarely built on theory alone, it takes practice, iteration, and honest exchange with those who have done the work before. That was the premise behind CEI’s Capacity-Building Workshop, held on 27 July at VinUniversity, which brought together students, early-career researchers, and faculty for a day of applied training in the fundamentals of rigorous research.

The day moved through the full arc of the research process. Participants started with Open Research Practices, asking what it really means to share data and publish openly rather than just talk about it. From there, discussion turned to Systematic Literature Review and Quantitative Research Methods, where the focus was on the judgment calls behind good survey design and analysis. The final session brought it all together with Grant Proposal Development, tackling the question every researcher eventually faces: how do you turn a promising idea into a funded one?

(Dr. Phung Thi Viet Bac, VinUniversity)

The workshop brought together Professor Akilu Yunusa-Kaltungo, Professor Clara Cheung (The University of Manchester), Professor Patrick Manu (University of the West of England), Dr. Phung Thi Viet Bac and Dr. Nguyen An Giang (VinUniversity), sharing perspectives from three institutions and two countries.

(Professor Akilu Yunusa-Kaltungo, The University of Manchester)

(Professor Clara Cheung, The University of Manchester)

(Professor Patrick Manu, University of the West of England)

We thank British Council and the British Embassy for their presence at the workshop and for their continued of the ISPF project, “A Pathway to Sustainability: Transforming Battery Waste into High-performance Carbon-based Materials for Clean Energy Generation.”