The French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) in Vietnam has been working on the development of a sustainability science set of projects for a couple of years now. This momentum is based on the strategic orientation of the headquarters. IRD is convinced that it is necessary to accompany the actors in the implementation and the reinforcement of the sustainability science: to give the impulse and the tools allowing the disciplines and the knowledge to meet and answer together the great stakes of sustainable development. Firmly focused on the needs of local populations, IRD’s research model is based on an equitable scientific partnership with the vocation of training and co-construction of knowledge in order to achieve the objectives of sustainable development (science of sustainability, science of sustainable solutions).
PREMISS is part of this program dedicated to sustainability science and the French and Vietnamese teams work together within the ACROSS laboratory. ACROSS (Advanced Computational Research On Sustainability Science) is an International Joint Laboratory established by the French Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD)/ UMMISCO, Thuy Loi University (TLU), Hanoi Architectural University (HAU) and Toulouse Computer Science Research Institute (IRIT) to design modeling and simulation tools in support of a scientific approach to sustainability in the management of irrigation systems in Vietnam. A number of other projects are built and/or implemented within this laboratory, all under the frame of sustainability science and adopting participatory and transdisciplinarity approaches. SIMPLE (Sustainability Issues Metaverse for building Participatory Learning Environments) has just been awarded by the European Commission, following an application to the EuropeAid call. SIMPLE will develop, with partner schools in the Lower Mekong countries (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam), a set of “sustainability metaverses”, i.e., educational solutions based on the integration of immersive virtual reality environments (virtual universes, or VU) with serious games and scientific simulations. Other projects with the same impulse are under development, including a capacity building Erasmus+ called “Supporting University Capacities in building Centers of Excellence in Sustainability Science” (SUCCESS).