VU research team awarded Australia-ASEAN Council grant

Victoria University has been awarded a 2016 Australia-ASEAN  (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Council grant to undertake a small business focused project.

Academics from Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines will partner with Victoria University to undertake intensive workshops to build research and training capacity through increased knowledge of the enabling role of information and communications technology (ICT) in bolstering small businesses.

The project, titled ASEAN academic partnerships for small business and ICT knowledge transfer, aligns with the following Australia-ASEAN Council (ACC) priority areas of Culture and Education:

• It will increase people-to-people linkages between Australia and South-East Asian countries across the universities involved in the project. Links established between these universities will provide the milieu to promote future areas of collaboration in training exchanges and joint research projects.
• It will provide an opportunity for Victoria University academics to transfer small business and ICT knowledge to partners in Asia. In turn, those partners will provide insights into the specific challenges faced by small business when using ICT in their regions.
• It is a multi-country collaboration. Two of the project’s participants (Malaysia and The Philippines) are priority countries for 2016 grants.

ASEAN Universities partnering with Victoria University are Mahidol University International College (Thailand), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (Malaysia) and De La Salle University (The Philippines).

Researchers from Victoria University are Dr Carmine Sellitto, Dr Rafael Paguio and Associate Professor Stephen Burgess.

The project (total funding of $77,123)  is due to start in January 2017 and expected to be completed in December 2017.