In 2014, Van Nguyen and Hanh Nguyen were ignited by a desire to connect and actualize the knowledge, skills and experiences they had acquired during their study time in Australia. The husband and wife team were both studying a Master program at the University of Queensland under the Australia Awards Scholarship. Their idea was for a small not-for-profit development research organization to promote sustainable development for less advantaged communities back in Vietnam.
In early 2015, they shared their idea with other Australian Awards graduates in Hue and agreed to establish a research center here in their home town. All those founding members have postgraduate degrees in the field of community development and share the same desire to contribute their international knowledge and skills to our host organizations and to work together to bring positive impacts to local communities in their areas of expertise.
In December 2017, the Center for Knowledge Co-creation and Development Research was established under the management of Thua Thien Hue Union of Science and Technology Associations. The Center emphasizes knowledge co-creation through trans-disciplinary research so that individuals and organizations from university, industry and government – the ‘triple helix’ – can work together with local communities to solve inter-connected and complex development problems. CKC is committed to working alongside its partners to develop an organization that embraces change, seeks continuous improvement, and encourages trans-disciplinary research.